


you’re so golden

by astankovas



Category: Killing Eve (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Olympics AU, Praise Kink, Smut, Tokyo 2020, alternative universe, and eve knows how to look after her, eve is a diver, the rona does not exist in this universe, they are both lesbians because i said so, theyre both soft as hell for each other, theyre just useless gays, v is a gymnast, v is needy as fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:14:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 71,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25823476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astankovas/pseuds/astankovas
Summary: in which a stressed, perfectionist diver and a bratty, overworked gymnast are drawn to each other in the olympic village.featuring hot and muscly villaneve, cat cafés, boobs in mouths, 69ing, falling in love in tokyo, sports jargon, medals and lots and lots of kisses
Relationships: Eve Polastri/Villanelle | Oksana Astankova
Comments: 160
Kudos: 407





	1. this is it

The first time Eve hears the name Oksana Astankova, she's overtired, jetlagged and ready to smother Elena with her Adidas sponsored Team GB neck pillow. 

They're 14 and a half hours deep into a 15 hour journey from London to Tokyo and Elena hasn’t stopped bumbling loudly to the rest of the team, rhyming off all the iconic Olympians she hopes to at least lay eyes on. ("Have you guys ever met Usain Bolt?") 

Eve recalls also being this excited prior to her first games back in 2008, the competition and atmosphere being romanticised and hyped up in her head, until of course she realised the reality of it - it's just like one huge college campus hook-up fest with a dash of sport on the side, almost like an afterthought. Everyone is cracked up on testosterone and trying to bang anything that breathes. Eve herself had spent her fair share of nights with athletes from around the globe during her three previous Olympics. 12,000 athletes in close proximity to each other, energy that needs to be let out, and language barriers that allow no questions to be asked, there's bound to be infinite sexual encounters over the 2 week period. Eve plans to put all that behind her this time though, the sport is far more important to her than a quickie with a Ghanian cyclist or Argentinian footballer - and frankly the STI risk isn't exactly worth it. 

"What's the Olympic village like?" Elena is shaking with excitement as the cartoon aircraft on the screen in front of her flies over the East China sea. They'll touchdown in about 30 minutes. 

"It's huge. Like literally a village. There's cafés, restaurants, hundreds of gyms, the biggest cafeterias you'll ever see in your life, a McDonald's, post offices, hair salons. Anything you need is right there." Eve describes, trying to keep her tone as happy and positive as possible. She'll miss out the details of Rio 2016's fires, gas leaks, robberies and power cuts. London 2012's lack of running water will also go unmentioned. And maybe it's best not to tell her about Beijing 2008's extreme pollution that resulted in athletes having to train in face coverings to protect their lungs. As a first time Olympian, this is one of the biggest days of Elena's life and Eve doesn't want to bring that down for her. 

Elena is one of Great Britain's most promising young divers, starting at the age of 7 and working her way through all the major world championships, effortlessly performing the most difficult and intricate dives with a flair that no other junior diver could compete with. She notably won her first gold medal in the European Junior Diving Championships in Serbia at only 14 years old. Elena met Eve in 2014 at the age of 19 when she was welcomed into the official Team GB and the two were paired up together to do synchronised dives, noting the similarities in their grace and effortless flow. However a lapse in her kinaesthetic judgement on takeoff during the 2015 World Championships meant she did not qualify for Rio 2016 (and was one of the only members of their team not to), much to Eve's disappointment. Thus, Elena had to watch Eve and the rest of Team GB head off to Brazil without her, crushing her spirits and making it imperative that she make it to Tokyo 2020. 

Team GB Diving are one of the stronger diving nations to compete in the Olympics. They have a variety of talents within the team, with Hugo's courage and willingness to learn the most difficult jumps and Jess' ability to enter the water more smoothly than any other World Champion diver (over the top splashing is a huge no-no). Kenny's strength and rotational velocity make his twists and flips effortless and Eve's creativity consistently wows the judges, presenting them with dives that are out of the ordinary and difficult and spectacular. Combine them with Bill, their once-world-number-1 (with 5 Olympic gold medals under his belt) coach, they always have a pretty good shot every 4 years at the games. 

"I just can't believe I'm finally going to be part of the Olympic games, even if I don't get through the preliminaries it's just an honour to be here, and I get to do it with my best friends!" Elena muses and she looks around and smiles at the rest of the team, some equally as excited as Elena and others equally as tired as Eve. 

"You deserve to be here most, Elena." says Kenny. "You work your ass off every single day and do some of the most amazing work I've ever seen in my life. You worked through your setbacks with a smile on your face and it's so inspiring."

Elena smiles even more at Kenny's sentiment as the pilot announces through the speaker:

“This is your pilot speaking. We are now approaching Haneda Airport, the date is July 23 2020 and local time is 3:07pm. The weather is currently 25 degrees celsius and the sun is shining. We are making our descent and will land shortly. Please lock your tray tables up and ensure seatbelts are fastened. Thank you.”

Eve smiles as Elena squeaks excitedly from the seat next to her. The cabin windows are white-out as they descend into the clouds and when the first sighting of buildings come into view there is a tangible silence across the aircraft. They are in Japan. They can see the skyscrapers and busy highways below and this is it. This is it. When they leave Japan they will either be winners or losers and it all comes down to the events occurring in just over two weeks. This is it. Eve exhales as the aircraft hits the ground and bounces, sending them across the runway to a gradual stop. 

Ōta, Tokyo. They're here.

_It's the summer of 1996 in Connecticut. While all her friends are playing outside, Eve sits on the carpet in her living room, transfixed on the TV in front of her. She is 7 years old, wide eyed and in love with swimming. Ever since she learned to swim at 3 years old, her father has taken her to the indoor community pool every other day where she can swim to her heart's content in her happy place. He calls her his little water baby. Watching the men and women swimming on TV gives her butterflies like nothing ever has before. Eve has never heard of the Olympics before today but as she watches Ireland's Michelle Smith win 3 Gold medals in a row, she knows she's going to be like her someday. ("I haven't been able to take her away from the television all afternoon." her mother remarks to her father with an eye roll.) As soon as the swimming competition ends, the screen moves to a slightly different pool. This pool is slightly shorter but appears to be even deeper and Eve gets excited to watch the swimmers again. Only, this time the swimmers don't swim through the water, they jump into it, doing somersaults and twists and turns as they descend. Eve is mesmerised by the flexibility and strength of the athletes on her TV and is exhilarated all over again, literally unable to take her eyes away. Fu Mingxia takes home two gold medals for both the 3m springboard and 10m platform (little Eve simply refers to them as the high board and the low board). Her father walks in, asking her what she's watching and why she doesn't want to play outside. "I don't want to be a swimmer anymore, Daddy. I'm gonna be like her one day!"_

The ride from the airport to the Olympic village is too long for everyone's liking - only around 40 minutes but after a 15 hour journey even 10 minutes seems like an eternity. 4 buses transport the entirety of Team GB to the Village, located in Harumi, Tokyo. Initial delays in travel meant that GB's original flight had to be cancelled, leaving them no choice but to arrive on the same day as the Opening Ceremony, leaving them less time to prepare than they had originally hoped. All they have to do for the ceremony is dress up in their ridiculous matching tracksuits adorning the Union Jack and wave at the crowd as they parade around the stadium which under regular circumstances would be fine, but in their overtired, jetlagged state feels like a punishment from Lucifer himself. All the other countries already had an extra day or two to settle into the village so GB are already feeling like outsiders from the get-go. 'Oh well,' Eve thinks, 'best til last'. 

Kenny and Hugo remain babbling to Elena about what she should expect from the village for the entirety of the bus ride, and even Eve herself feels waves of excitement she never anticipated. It's Eve's fourth Olympics, Jess, Kenny and Hugo's second and Elena's first but nothing could prepare any of them for the breath taking sights as they pull up to the Tokyo Village and see it for the very first time. 

There are easily 30 high rise buildings, all with different countries' flags hanging out of windows and tied across balconies. A huge entrance park donned with hundreds of flags representing every nation taking part in the games. The iconic 5 Olympic Rings, each representing a continent and the colours mirroring the flags of the world. Breathtaking views of the harbour frame the immense size of the village that appears to go for miles. This is only the entrance. 

They are led to check in and fill in some paperwork regarding legal and medical business and then whisked up twenty floors to their rooms in the Team GB building. Similar to university dorms, the apartments have five rooms surrounding one communal area and communal bathroom space. It really is pretty basic stuff, a twin bed, a pop up fabric wardrobe, a bedside table and a sink. ("Oh my God, we even get our own reading light!" Eve hears Elena squeal from her room and giggles at how easily impressed she is.) Each communal space has a balcony looking out onto the gorgeous Harumi wharf and the rest of the Olympic village. Gyms, restaurants, salons and leisure parks are all visible from this angle and Eve can already imagine the team people-watching their days away up here. 

Eve unpacks her adidas-sponsored blue, white and red sportswear (which she makes most of her living endorsing) into her disposable wardrobe and finally takes a moment to lay down on her bed. The Opening Ceremony is tonight and she has to get ready soon, but a little rest won't kill her. She exhales audibly. She's here. This is it.

_Oksana is eight years old in a gymnastics grade meant for girls aged thirteen and up. Her petite frame and short stature mean she doesn't weigh a lot and she can effortlessly do the more advanced tricks usually reserved for the older girls. Never before have they seen such a promising young gymnast, none as stylish, powerful and flexible as Oksana. Having rich yet neglectful parents allows her to attend the most prestigious junior gymnastics school in Podmoskovye, and arguably the entirety of Russia. Old before her age and desperate for a healthy coping mechanism, she clings to the freedom she can only feel from gymnastics, it's all she has._

__

__

_By age twelve Oksana is given a false passport and told by her coach that if anyone asks, she's sixteen. It's illegal of course, but Oksana gets no say in the matter. She wins 3 Gold medals as a senior in the World Championships, performing tricks that are overly advanced for her age. She likes the attention. She likes hearing the crowd cheering for her as she flips and twists through the air on the uneven bars with optimal support and rhythm, roaring as she lands a one and a half dismount perfectly or makes a Dos Santos style floor skill look simple. She has never received much attention before in any aspect of her life and now she has found a way to get it, she's never going to give it up._

Oksana Astankova is twenty years old laying on her twin bed in Tokyo, gearing up for the beginning of her second Olympic Games. Having touched down two days ago, she has already unpacked her bags and stuck a multitude of pictures of her cat, Sasha, on her wall. She has already explored the Village in its entirety and scoped out the best areas to people-watch and train in private. The Olympics is something she has trained for for the last 4 years, but now she's finally here, she's just bored and misses her cat. Tonight is the Opening Ceremony. Nothing she has ever experienced in her entire life has been as boring as the 2016 Opening Ceremony, so she doesn't have high hopes. She scoffs at the seemingly fake excitement her fellow Team Russia gymnasts are expressing for it. 

"We can scope out all the hot runner boys we want to sleep with!" She hears one of her teammates say and rolls her eyes again. 

Sex is an integral part of the Olympics for the majority of athletes. Oksana learned that fact from her very first games at the age of sixteen, spending her days training and her nights sleeping around with different women, some double her age. Arriving at the Olympics doe-eyed and open-minded back in 2016, she got sucked into the sex and partying aspect almost immediately, sometimes missing full days of training the next day. While drinking alcohol isn't banned in the Olympic Village, it's definitely frowned upon and Oksana managed to abstain until after her events were over. However, voluntary prohibition didn't stop her staying out late in random lounge parties with strangers from around the globe, her Italian, French, German, Spanish and English skills coming in handy when meeting acquaintances and flirting with foreign women. Women are one of main reasons Oksana even came to the 2020 games in the first place, enjoying the cultural melting pot of the Village which makes a change from her usual blonde-haired blue-eyed Russian partners. 

It's not a secret that Oksana doesn't enjoy gymnastics the way she used to. After almost fourteen straight years of competing, all of her muscle groups have been overworked to the point of rapid deterioration. At age fifteen she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her knee which never completely healed, still flaring up every so often. The media have noted that a disproportionately large amount of Oksana's body is strapped during her routines, unlike her teammates who never appear to have the amount of injuries she does. Her retirement is imminent and the gymnastics world are well aware of this, just trying to cling onto her for as long as they can until she finally gives it up. Oksana clings to the praise and attention she receives, making all the aches and pains bearable for now. 

"I think I'm going to skip the ceremony tonight. I need to catch up on sleep and I don't feel like standing for 3 hours watching other countries parade." Oksana tells her teammates, two girls who are both making their Olympic debuts at age 18 and 19 respectively. They really look up to Oksana and as much as they irritate her, she doesn't want to ruin their first games by being a dick the whole time, so she has been putting up with them more than she normally would. 

"Come on, Oksana, we want you to come with us. You are Russia's golden girl everyone wants to see you!" one of them pleads. 

The other girl nods. "Yeah. Imagine all the little girls in the crowd who look up to you. They want to shake your hand and get your autograph."

Oksana laughs at them, almost feeling sick to her stomach that little untainted girls want to end up like her, but they are right. She is a household name in Russia and is the role model of so many young gymnasts across Eastern Europe, widely regarded as the best gymnast in the world who has shaped the sport immensely throughout her career. 

"Fine, I'll come." she agrees. "But on one condition: I can bring girls back to our apartment whenever I want and you aren't allowed to complain about noise."

And with that, Oksana is pulling on her ridiculous Opening Ceremony outfit. Tight, red metallic pants that leave nothing to the imagination and her matching red and white jacket- adorned with RUS on her right boob and SIA on her left boob. By just simply wearing the jacket, the Toyota and Samsung logos embroidered onto the sleeves will earn her millions of ruble, and the more she is photographed wearing it, the more she will receive. She plans on never taking it off for 2 weeks. 

The Opening Ceremony was just as boring as Eve tried to warn everybody it would be. Focusing on the Japanese audience, the dialogue was almost entirely in Japanese and the aesthetics were very much designed to look great on a TV screen, sacrificing the way they looked in real life. Team GB did their walk round and high fived some spectators in the stalls, but aside from that they just had to stand there in the middle of the Olympic stadium watching everyone else have fun. 

"What country do you think has the hottest athletes?" Hugo bends down and asks Eve, borderline shouting in her ear to be heard over the loud music and fireworks. 

"Are you ever not thinking about sex?" Eve shouts back as Hugo smiles at her. "It's gotta be Argentina though. Definitely one of the South American countries, anyway."

"Good answer. I'm into all those Jamaican girls over there," he points over to a group of girls in green, yellow and black tracksuits who also seem to be looking around, scouting for attractive foreign athletes. "I'm gonna try get one of them."

The Opening Ceremony is generally understood among athletes to be pretty unenjoyable, which is why many people opt to attend an afterparty when it's over. The Olympic Village has an array of massive conference halls that could easily fit 5,000 people inside each. There are televisions all over the walls which will show the games once they officially kick off so that athletes can always see what's going on in their downtime. One of these halls is announced as the afterparty venue shortly after the Ceremony ends and the athletes get to go back inside. 

"We're going to the party." Hugo announces, dragging Eve by the wrist. 

Eve giggles. "I haven't slept in like two days, I'm exhausted. We can go but we aren't staying up all night Hugo, I mean it."

Elena, Kenny and Jess have been lost in the crowd somewhere but they'll most likely be coming along with them too. Eve is one of the more well known and respected divers and has many international friends she has met over the years. Eve only gets to see certain friends every 4 years so it is important for her to get out there as much as she can. Once the intensive training starts, no one will have time for parties like this. 

This one room used as a party/lounge space is easily the length of 3 Olympic swimming pools and is teeming with athletes from around the globe. There are tons of sofas, beanbags, chairs and huge speakers blasting music, currently playing some sort of Japanese rap. A man walks around with a trash-bag filled with condoms, urging everyone to take what they need, resulting in Hugo grabbing a handful and putting them into his track top pockets. It's a party full of 20-somethings and 30-somethings, all with the egos and power and bodies of Greek gods and goddesses, the peak of humankind, who are desperate to fuck anything that moves. Eve supposes she might actually do it tonight and get it out of her system at least before training starts and consumes her days and nights. She turns around moments later to speak to Hugo, but finds him 20 feet away talking up the Jamaican runners he had his eyes on during the Ceremony. Eve bids to leave him alone. 

She sighs and opts to sit down next to two girls on a sofa while she people-watches and texts Elena to find her whereabouts. One girl smiles at her and turns back to face the other, while the other girl's gaze lingers a little longer. She's half expecting to hear her ask, "Are you Eve Polastri? I'm a huge fan!" which is what normally what follows those kinds of stares yet it never comes. Eve stares back, looking at her beautiful delicate features, trying to decipher what sport she looks like she plays. It's usually pretty easy to tell. Tall and broad? Basketball. Obscenely strong arms? Weightlifting. Wearing a dad cap? Golf. However, this girl looks too soft and delicate to even be here, like the slightest physical exertion could break her. Maybe it's a sexist stereotype but Eve wants to wrap this girl in bubble wrap and never let her near any of the brutalities of Olympic league sport. Eve offers her a small smile which is returned, until the cherubic girl breaks her gaze and goes back to talking to the girl she is with. The two have very distinct accents, one loud and obnoxious Western American and the other a soft spoken, gentle, angelic Russian (made evident by the RUS SIA embroidered on her jacket). Every thirty seconds or so the Russian girl looks up at Eve for a duration that almost feels uncomfortable, then snaps out of it again, and repeat. Eve's thumbs type a text quickly to Elena:

Eve: Are you at the party? Hugo has already found girls and a shit ton of condoms, I guess he's going to keep us up tonight

When Eve looks up from her phone, she notices the space next to her is empty now. Looking over, she sees the American girl in the Russian girl's lap, passionately making out with her and grinding against her leg. The Russian girl has both hands on the American girl's ass and the two look like they're about to jump each other's bones on site. It wouldn't be the first time. There are stories of Olympians going at it on the grass in the Village, in gymnasiums, the cafeteria, the hallways. All these hormones and no where to go makes people desperate. Eve decides she's going to go find herself a pretty girl to make out with like the girls next to her are doing. 

Consciously or subconsciously, she goes out of her way to find someone with blonde-hair and light eyes who reminds her of the pretty Russian girl she shared a sofa with. 

Oksana somehow manages to make it through the Opening Ceremony without blasting a bullet through her brain. For the Closing Ceremony, everyone is blackout drunk having already won their medals and no longer in intensive training making for a really great time and it is once again, a very intense hook-up fest as everyone tries to get a final lay in before going back to their home country. Oksana looks forward to that. For now though, she plans to go to the afterparty and find someone to take back to her room with her. For the past few months in the build up to getting to Tokyo, she has been non-stop training day in, day out which left no room for any leisure activities, let alone sex. She can almost smell the pheromones as she walks into the loud afterparty, a room crowded with easily 4,000 people all dancing and catching up with one another. During Rio 2016, Oksana could count the nights she slept in her own room on one hand. Having lost her virginity on the night of the Opening Ceremony, she slept with a new woman every night without fail, gradually getting more and more confident as she made her way through them all. By her seventh night in the Olympic Village she was having a threesome with two twenty-something French weightlifters and by the ninth night she was doing it against a wall in plain sight outdoors. She plans on doing the exact same stuff this time around. 

A girl is sitting alone on a sofa in the middle of the room and if the stars and stripes of her track suit didn't suggest that she was American, her strong valley accent certainly did.

"Hey, my names Gina!" she chirps as Oksana sits down beside her, her smile dropping slightly when she sees the RUS SIA of Oksana's track jacket. "Do you speak English?"

"Yeah I do, I've been learning since I was little."

"Oh great! It's hard to make friends here because I only speak English. But I have you now! Whats your name? Sport? How old are you? Is it your first games?"

Gina's perky American demeanour would put Oksana off under any other circumstance, but right now shes horny and desperate and this girl has the most gorgeous Afro she has ever seen. She radiates strong lesbian energy in every aspect and Oksana’s determined to get in her pants before the night ends. 

"I'm Oksana. I'm 20. And I'm an artistic gymnast. It's my second games. I won 2 Golds last year in Uneven Bars and All-Round Individual, a Silver in Team and a Bronze in Floor."

"Oh I think I've heard of you. You were 16 right? And you got all those medals? That's incredible. I'm 25 and I play soccer. It's my first ever games. I'm new to all this Olympic party stuff."

Gina and Oksana get to talking more, with both girls trying less-than-subtly to steer the conversation more towards sex and intimacy, which neither complain about. ("Have you seen the amount of condoms they're handing out? I even took some and I'm a lesbian!" Gina giggles, looking intently at Oksana's face to see her reaction. In response Oksana giggles and nods placing her hand on Gina's thigh and squeezing, confirming Gina's suspicions that she is also gay.) 

Both girls feel the sofa dip slightly next to them and they look up from their conversation (which is heating up slightly now, with Gina asking about Oksana's best Olympic hookup stories). Oksana looks up when she sees a mop of dark curly hair in her periphery. The athlete she lost her virginity to had dark curly hair. Her ex coach she would do anything to impress had dark curly hair. Her mom who had never shown her an ounce of affection had dark curly hair. It's a weird weakness that Oksana has never been able to shake so she indulges it whenever she can through her sexual partners. The woman looks so relaxed, seemingly comfortable in this environment despite presumably coming to the party alone. Oksana figures this isn't her first time at the games. She tries to guess which sport the woman plays, badminton maybe? Tennis? She is very short and petite so any sort of team sport like rugby or basketball is out of the equation. She finds herself less interested in her conversation with Gina and more interested in the breathtaking woman sitting just 2 feet away from them. She wants to be talking to her instead. The lady looks up at Oksana and gives an unsure smile, as if waiting for her to speak, so she quickly breaks her gaze and goes back to her now boring conversation. Every so often she sneaks another look at the woman, but glances away before Gina notices. Eventually, the urge to speak to this woman is becoming too strong and she doesn't want to let Gina down, so she motions her to come sit on her lap. The two begin making out, more tongue than lips as Gina grinds down on Oksana's thigh (and if Oksana starts subconsciously picturing herself making out with the other curly brunette instead, it's 100% an accident.)

"My room or yours?" Gina pants in between frantic kisses. 

"Mine, I brought toys here with me if you want to use them?."

Gina nods and with that, Oksana is leading Gina out of the conference hall and outside towards the Team Russia building. With 12,000 Olympians here in the Village, Oksana accepts that she's most likely never going to see the beautiful curly haired woman again, so she settles for Gina, the next best thing. 

Eve wakes up at 7am in a bed that is not hers. The room is empty and Eve checks her phone, noting that the Team GB Diving iMessage group chat consisting of Eve, Elena, Kenny, Hugo and Jess is uncharacteristically dead. Eve takes this as a sign that all her teammates were also too preoccupied in their first night rendezvous last night to keep in touch with one another. She figures it's going to be this way until they touch down in London. It's probably best to keep their antics to themselves. 

Eve finds her clothes that have been discarded on the floor and throws them on, before attempting to find her way back to the GB building. If she remembers correctly, the girl she slept with was Australian, meaning the GB building is only about a minute walk across the Village. The walk back to her room is interesting to say the least. All different cultures and ages and groups of people are buzzing around. Some are playing in the tennis courts, others out running and others simply holding a map of the Village in their hands trying to figure out where to get breakfast. It's amazing, Eve thinks, that no one here has much in common except being the best of the best of their sport in their nation. Everyone she walks past is probably some little kid's idol. She wishes she could show her 7 year old self this environment, people from all around the world coming together, united only by their love of sport. 

Back in her apartment, Eve finds Kenny and Elena missing, presumably crashed in someone else's room while Hugo makes tea in the kitchen, a Jamaican girl still sleeping in his bed. Jess appears to be the only one who didn't fuck someone, completely alone in her bed. 

"So you behaved yourself last night then?" Eve asks Jess with a small smile. "I saw you as the type to jump on the first male you seen with a six pack."

Hugo chuckles from the kitchen. "Don't let her fool you. Two Argentinian footballers just left her room."

Training starts at 8am and Eve is finally reunited with the entirety of her team, Kenny and Elena included. Elena is talking her ear off about what she did last night and which famous Olympians she walked past and how amazing the breakfast is here and how excited she is to train in a real Olympic pool when Bill interrupts her with his classic "I expect greatness and no less" speech that he uses when he wants to motivate the divers. They can practically recite his spiel word for word at this point. 

"You all worked your arses off to get where you are standing right now and I need 200% effort from now on. I want to see perfection and nothing short of it. We aren't wasting a trip to Tokyo for nothing. We aren't spending 4 years kicking ourselves when we might not even qualify in 2024. This is our opportunity and we are grabbing it by the balls. Do not embarrass me. Okay?"

"Okay!" The team reply excitedly, looking forward to getting into training on the real springboards and platforms they'll be competing on. 

The divers qualified based on the results of the Diving World Championships in 2019, with the five of them doing the best out of all competitive divers in Great Britain. The final diving competitions begin in two weeks, starting with the preliminary round, then the semifinal and then the final.

In Beijing 2008, 20 year old Eve made it to the semifinal, where she attempted a backwards three and a half somersault on the springboard however was not perfectly streamlined and didn't enter the water smoothly enough, causing her to smack the water, looking messy and unpolished compared to the other competitors. She did not get through to the final. Eve cursed herself to no end, feeling like she let herself and Bill and her family down. She recalls phoning her father in tears, where he simply told her that he is so proud of her and she is always a winner in his eyes, a sentiment she has held onto since then.

In London 2012, Eve made it to the finals and won a silver and two bronze medals for her platform, springboard and synchronised dives, this time crying tears of joy to her father on the phone who was watching her on television from Connecticut. 

Rio 2016 saw Eve winning her first Gold medal for her platform dive, nailing the 3.8 score difficulty of a reverse one and a half somersault with four and a half twists. The dive went down in history as one of the hardest ever attempted, let alone perfected and has since been named The Polastri. This put Eve on a pedestal, making her a definite one to watch in the diving world. She also recieved another bronze on the springboard, giving her a total of 5 Olympic decorations. 

Each diver takes turns showing Bill the dives they're planning for the preliminaries. Kenny first, then Elena, then Jess, then Hugo, then Eve. Everyone smashes their first attempts, mainly attempting 3.4 to 3.6 difficulty dives. It's usually safest to go for a lower difficulty dive and perfect it like the others are doing, but Eve goes for the highest difficulty every time. 3.8. She is extremely in tune with her body, with the ability to know from a very young age how to move in certain ways and control her strength and velocity while mid-air. Everything she does is with style and grace, every movement flowing together, body perfectly streamlined as if it's effortless. Eve doesn't mess up anymore. She left her fuck ups back in 2008. Every dive she does is perfect now. 

That's why, when she can't nail her signature dive, Bill is not happy. Eve is not happy. The team is not happy. It brings the entire mood of the session down. If the Golden girl with all eyes on her can't do this then what chance has anyone else got? Her first attempt goes fine. She didn't jump high enough in the beginning, but the rest goes smoothly as ever. Her second attempt goes worse, when she pauses mid-air as she forgets her next motion and before she knows it, she's in the water again. On her third attempt, she does her somersault and twists perfectly, but doesn't initiate her swim fast enough when she hits the water. 

Bill is arguably the best diving coach of any nation, being the only diver to consecutively sweep two Olympic Games in a row in 1984 and 1988, he takes Championship divers and moulds them into gold medal winning Olympic divers. He doesn't do this through gentle words and soft hugs. Eve has seen first hand how Bill gets when he is disappointed in a diver. She experienced it herself back in 2006 when she was 18 and freshly recruited onto Team GB, he had to mould her into the standard she is now with tough love.

However, she was a kid then. She is 32 years old now, training for what is likely to be her final Olympic Games before she retires, and she can't even stick an entry. The first skill you learn when you start competitive diving. She's here in Tokyo gearing up for the Olympics on the back of her Gold win last Games, all eyes are on her and she can't stick an entry. She tries and tries and slightly improves each time but it's never perfect and she needs it to be perfect and Bill needs it to be perfect and the judges need it to be perfect. It all gets to be a little too much for Eve, having to listen to Bill yelling at her relentlessly, her team's disappointed sighs when she fucks up again and her own thoughts racing. By the time 12pm comes she is the first one out of the pool and her team know better than to follow behind her, instead opting to let her cool off. 

Eve makes her way to the main cafeteria which is almost empty compared to how it was this morning at breakfast time. Most athletes are in training right now, some of which happens miles away from the Village. It's nice to see everything a little less hectic than usual. Lunch is something Eve would usually skip, but having had a hard morning she opts for some apple sticks with peanut butter. Everything the Olympians eat is calorie counted and macro tracked, with some athletes required to eat up to 9000 calories a day depending on their sport. Everything served by the chefs in the canteen is healthy and balanced, Eve's dietitian would approve.

Taking a seat at one of the many little tables, she thinks about her training session, trying to work out what exactly went wrong? Why? How can she fix it? It's hard to think critically when you're on the springboard or 10m in the air so she takes this time to think. Tears begin pooling at her eyes as she remembers more and more mistakes she made. Normally in this situation, she would phone her father and get advice from him, but he passed away 2 years ago. Her mother is extremely proud of her but isn't great for sport related advice, eternally worried that she’s going to get injured. Any slight bump in the road and her mother pulls the "I think it's time you retire before you hurt yourself." card. 

"Hi." Eve is pulled from her thoughts by a soft little voice appearing from in front of her. 

Looking up, Eve sees the girl from last night, once again wearing her RUS SIA jacket, but this time with her hair tied back and wearing a red rhinestone leotard. Eve recognises her leotard and guesses she must be a gymnast, one sport she knows absolutely nothing about. While she enjoys watching other sports like swimming, tennis and basketball, she has never understood the appeal of watching gymnastics or any of the rules involved. The girl offers her a shy smile which Eve reciprocates. 

"Hi...Um was this your seat or something?" Eve asks as she hurriedly grabs her stuff to let the girl sit down. 

"No...no I just...you look upset and maybe you want someone to talk to? I had some free time and I was watching your team dive. I saw your coach was being really hard on you," The girl says, voice still shy and quiet. "My name's Oksana. What's yours?"

"Eve." she replies, internally cooing at how cute Oksana sounded. 

"Well I thought your dives were great, Eve. And to someone who doesn't know a thing about diving, yours looked so much better than the rest of your team."

"Thanks. It's just frustrating, you know? This is my third games and I won Gold in Rio and I feel like I'm never going to live up to that again. Is this your first games?"

Oksana shakes her head. "Second. I got Gold in Rio, too. I know how you feel. There's a standard for us now that we expected to live up to and any minor failure feels so much worse. It's a feeling only the Gold winners can truly understand."

"People are placing real bets on me. People are putting real life money on me getting Gold again. And I know I'm going to let everyone down."

"Hey, it's only day one of training, don’t worry. When are the diving preliminaries?"

"Two weeks."

"So you have two weeks to perfect it. Just work as hard as you can and you'll smash it. People don't just win Gold for no reason, you clearly have the talent and passion and drive it takes." Oksana tells her with a smile. 

Eve smiles back at her. "Thank you. Seriously thank you. It’s nice to hear some positivity for once. So, tell me about yourself, distract me."

Oksana pulls out the chair next to Eve and sits next to her, starting to feel awkward just standing there. "I'm an artistic gymnast mainly. I do rhythmic gymnastics too but not at Olympic level. I'm from Russia," she gestures animatedly at her ridiculous jacket. "I'm 20."

"So you competed in Rio when you were sixteen? And got Gold?" Eve asks in awe. Of course, diving has some competitors in the Championships as young as fourteen however it is extremely rare and pretty unheard of for them to compete at Olympic level. Eve can't imagine the brutality of competing in the Olympics as a literal child. It's soul-destroying as a fully grown adult. 

Oksana just nods, looking a little uncomfortable. "I have to get to training, but I'll see you around, okay? I'll stop by sometime and watch you dive again. It's really beautiful to watch you. What's your surname? I'll watch your win at Rio."

"Polastri. What's yours? I'll watch yours too."

"Astankova."

Oksana gives another of her little warm, shy smiles as she grabs her duffel bag and stands up, leaving Eve alone in the cafeteria with nothing but flushed cheeks and butterflies in her stomach. 

Eve spends the rest of the day cardio training. She goes on a run with Hugo, racing each other round the 400m (she wins). The team then collectively play a game of badminton (boys against girls. The girls win.) and then spend the rest of the day in the gym together. When Eve heads to bed that night, she is content in that even though her sport specific training didn't go well, her cardio training was thorough and enjoyable. Oksana liked her dives. It shouldn't be the most important thing to her right now, that some random cute gymnast liked her dives. She should care about Bill's opinion and Hugo's opinion and Jess' opinion. But her mind keeps coming back to Oksana's. Oksana liked them. And that's good enough for today. 

She finds herself doing what she has been looking forward to doing all day, watching videos of Oksana's routines on YouTube. The first video she watches is Oksana winning Bronze for her floor routine. She is a lot younger, only sixteen years old. Naturally brunette and physically tiny compared to the other gymnasts, she runs and bounces and somersaults and flips and drops in the most mesmerising ways while upbeat instrumental music plays fervently in the background. She nails every somersault and her body movements hit every beat, the loud thuds of her feet hitting the floor blending in perfectly with the music. A couple of landings are wobbly and she goes a little out of bounds on one pass which result in the judges marking her down slightly, but she does it all with a smile on her face, coming in third place over all. 

Next, Eve watches her win Gold on the Uneven Bars. It's the same tiny little brunette as in the first video, this time swinging in circles around two bars, effortlessly hand-standing and twisting and somersaulting between the two, every movement more elegant than the last. She wields so much control in her tiny body, as if it's just muscle memory at this point. Her upper body strength must be astronomical. The audience are cheering her on and roaring as she perfects her dismount. The judges all rate her the highest possible score, landing her comfortably in first place. 

Something about it feels off to Eve. Although it's one of the happiest moments of Oksana's life, Eve can see a certain tiredness in her eyes. She recognises it in her self now after 23 years of diving, the face of someone who has been pushed to her limit both mentally and physically. The difference being that Eve is experiencing it at 32 and Oksana was experiencing it at 16. Eve can't help but wonder what sort of training she had to endure to become so perfect at such a young age, moving like a perfectly crafted machine with no room for error. A quick look at the comments reveals just how admired Oksana is in the gymnastics community, with most comments praising her routine and strength and flexibility and creativity, hailing her the greatest gymnast to walk the planet. Other comments however, point out how many straps and grips she has on her skin, indicating the extent of the muscle damage underneath. Others point out the tiredness in her eyes and obvious anger within herself at every tiny mistake she makes, smiling throughout her routine while her eyes look completely dead. The comment that sticks out to Eve most, however, is a comment with a timestamp, reading: "At 4:03 you can see she's crying. She is in so much pain but still performing through it anyway and giving it her all."

Eve googles her name: Oksana Astankova. She is brought to her Wikipedia page, detailing all her achievements in World Championships and prestigious competitions. It is clear to Eve that Oksana is one of the greatest gymnasts of her time, with no one else quite comparing to her. Award after award after award is highlighted on screen and Eve is genuinely impressed that such a young girl has even more trophies under her belt than she does. It is revealed a little further down that Oksana is the second most decorated female gymnast in the world at only twenty years old. Her Wikipedia page has a Personal Life section and when Eve clicks it, she reads something that breaks her heart. 

_In 2018, Astankova came out about the abuse she suffered from the age of 8 at the hands of her former coach. She reports being beaten, starved and made to do extremely advanced stunts that were permanently damaging to her underdeveloped body. Astankova was stripped of four gold medals acquired from the 2012 and 2013 World Championships after evidence came out that she lied about her age to compete as a senior. These medals were later reinstated when her former coach was charged._

Eve deflates, now understanding why Oksana went out of her way to cheer her up after her hard day of training. Horror stories about abusive coaches are unfortunately common within the Olympic community. Reports of starvation, sexual abuse, beatings, sleep deprivation and age fabrication have plagued the Games for decades. The Soviets were even accused in the 60s of impregnating their athletes, some as young as fourteen, to raise their testosterone and progesterone levels (promoting boosts in power, strength and muscle relaxation) and then aborting the foetuses after the Games had ended. Measures have since been implemented to protect the athletes from any wrongdoings and filter out any abusive or fraudulent coaches, but evidently some are always bound to slip through the cracks. Eve heads to sleep with a fast racing mind and a sickness in her stomach, unable to get the little girl from the videos out of her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello if u made it this far!!!!
> 
> im not a writer nor do i claim to be but this entire idea came to me during a maladaptive daydream and i am taking one for the team and bringing it to fruition. 
> 
> this is my first time writing literally anything since high school english class so any feedback is so so welcome. tell me all your thoughts good or bad im genuinely begging
> 
> this chap was all the boring introduction stuff. now we can get into the goods
> 
> twitter: @astankovas_


	2. little dolphin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> today i offer you a full chap of villaneve yearning and being useless lesbians. tomorrow? who knows.
> 
> NSFW

"давай, давай!" Konstantin yells from the sidelines, cheering Oksana on as she practises her standing back salto, tucked with a full twist on the balance beam. The beam is one of her strongest areas and Konstantin really pushes her to advance further if she feels she is ready. Fearless and extremely steady on her feet, Oksana is confident in trying out any type of new trick, usually able to perfect difficult tricks in a matter of minutes as her teammates watch in awe. 

On the floor she starts with a double salto with a double twist in layout position, one of her signature floor moves, landing steadily upright every time. Konstantin and the rest of the girls cheer her on as she completes her routine, making it look effortless, moving like clockwork. What she lacks in grace on floor, she makes up for with her insane tumbling skills. It's what makes her stand out so much among the other competitors. Her floor routine is so jam packed with difficult, seemingly impossible tumbles that it doesn't matter how elegantly she choreographs the dance element, she's scoring high regardless. The cheers really help to take Oksana out of her own head, basking in the praise as she performs the routines she knows like the back of her hand. 

"Great job today, you know I am extremely proud of you everyday, my best girl." Konstantin tells her, in Russian, as she unstraps her hands and high fives her teammates after showcasing her bar, floor and beam routines. 

In the rare event that Oksana makes a minuscule mistake, she is the master of covering it up. Jumped a little bit out of bounds on a tumbling pass? She quickly jumps forward and smiles harder at the judging panel to distract them. Stumbled a little on beam? She makes it look like a deliberate movement, perhaps even repeating the stumble on purpose to reinforce that idea. Her routines are largely based upon brand new skills that she created herself, so who's to say a stumble isn't just another one of her abstract moves? There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Oksana will leave Tokyo even more decorated than she arrived. 

She pulls Konstantin in for a hug and high fives him, grateful for his support and encouragement. It's something she never experienced until she met him at the age of eighteen when he took over as her coach and completely changed the way she looked at gymnastics. He listened to her, understood her boundaries, let her take breaks whenever she needed and was always there to answer questions and help her out. He formulated a specific diet plan for her, allowing her to feel stronger and healthier and to finally reach a healthy weight she had never come close to before. Konstantin even let Oksana stay with him in a spare room back in Moscow when a power cut left her with no electricity, heating or hot water for days. He looks out for her the way she has never had before and she is eternally grateful to him for it. Oksana is notoriously hard to work with, often turning up late to training if she even turns up at all, having tantrums about wearing ugly outfits and being rude and dry to interviewers. Konstantin is very patient with her even though she can be difficult at times and in return for his eternal tolerance, he gets to coach the best gymnast on Earth. He has seen her at her most vulnerable, and will always have that imagery in the back of his mind while dealing with her. 

After training, Oksana is swiping mindlessly through Tinder as she tends to do a lot in her spare time here. The app is teeming with women whose abs look hand crafted by God herself, all nationalities showcased. Oksana finds it the easiest way to meet potential sexual partners while at the games. Sexuality is pre-established and everyone is on Tinder for the same reason, so it often simply comes down to asking "What block and room number are you?" and heading straight there. 

Eve's profile pops up on Oksana's Tinder. Because of course it does. Her bio is simply "Team GB Diving" with a bunch of water themed emojis, including a little dolphin that makes Oksana smile. She has a few pictures with her teammates and some of her diving (how can she still look so pretty while careening towards a pool at 70mph mid-flip?), but also a few pictures with her hair down in evening dresses and makeup. The Olympic Village is very relaxed in regards to appearance. The athletes walk around in their national leotards, swimsuits, jerseys and track suits which are, for the most part, nothing to write home about. Makeup and hair get abandoned as the focus is solely placed on the sport. When competing, Oksana will apply a little bit of makeup and add ribbons to her hair, but it's never anything particularly special. The only time the athletes make a real effort is during the Closing Ceremony. It's nice to see Eve dressed up like this, and she hopes she might get a glimpse of it in person at the Ceremony. 

She swipes right on Eve. Because who wouldn't? She's fucking beautiful and talented and Oksana just wants to know everything about her life, dissatisfied with the one small conversation they had. 

Oksana has been unable to get Eve out of her mind since then, watching tons of YouTube videos featuring her. When YouTube searching Oksana's name, the only results are videos of her routines along with the odd fan-made edit or awkward post-win interview. Eve's YouTube results, however, include some more light hearted videos such as commercials she has featured in and fun interviews that don't feel like interrogations.

('Eve Polastri tries to keep up with a Professional Chef' is the last video Oksana watches before falling asleep, entranced by her charisma and humour as well as her intelligence and thoughtfulness when answering the interviewer's questions. She could listen to Eve talk about her passions for hours. The comment section really showcases how much she is loved, stealing the hearts of sports fans globally, constantly being referred to as GB's Golden girl. The video also helps her realise that if it ever comes down to it, she's never letting Eve cook for her.)

Its a match!  
Eve likes you too

Oksana smiles goofily at her phone, trying to think of the right thing to message her. A pickup line? Too cheesy. A simple 'Hi'? Too boring. Instead, she just asks the question she genuinely wants to know the answer to (and adds a cute nickname for good measure):

Oksana: was your training any better today little dolphin?🐬

Eve finishes up her training at 12pm again, relieved as her dives went smoother and more stylish than yesterday's mishaps. (When showcasing her classic eponymous move, The Polastri, she hit every motion absolutely perfectly and nailed her entry, garnering no deductions. She arguably thinks she performed it better today than she did the day she won Gold for it.) Eve just has to accept that yesterday was only one bad day and she's going to keep improving everyday. 

The team go for a celebratory lunch together after pretty solid performances from all of them. Eve feels exponentially more relaxed that she did this time yesterday as she spoke with Oksana. She wonders what Oksana is doing, what's going through her pretty little head, wonders if her training is going well, wonders if she's thinking about Eve too. 

Eve doesn't exactly know what fascinates her so much about Oksana. The two have literally only seen each other twice, their only conversation lasting no longer than three minutes, but something about Oksana makes her feel an overwhelming urge to protect her. Sure, the heartbreaking information she found on the girl's Wikipedia plays a role in it, along with the bittersweet footage of her winning her Golds with tears of pain in her eyes, but Eve recalls even feeling this way when she knew nothing about that stuff. She supposes that any pretty girl being kind and supportive of her is enough to make her go a little soft. 

"Did you guys know that the gold medals aren't even made of gold?" Hugo babbles over his avocado toast. "They're made of silver and just plated to look gold."

"I heard if you boiled down a bronze medal, the raw material would only earn you like £4." Kenny adds. 

Jess scoffs. "Wow, they really spoil us here, don't they?"

Eve listens passively as she scrolls through her phone, picking at her quinoa salad as she goes. Friends and family back home have been dying to hear Eve's stories, see pictures of the Village and wish her luck in her training and it always makes her day catching up with them. Tokyo is a long way from home, whether it's her real home back in Eastern Connecticut or her chosen home in the heart of London. Homesickness isn't helpful to anyone though, and by her fourth Games, she has found ways to suppress it until it hardly affects her. 

Her thumb eventually finds it's way to the Tinder icon, an app she literally never uses in day-to-day life, but is an essential to her during Olympics season. With the amount of athletes in the Village going from venue to venue, it's hard to really get talking to anyone new unless there's a party going on. Tinder is a way to keep everyone together and have conversations that can fit around training and exercise and food and sleep. Tinder reported a 348% rise in use during Rio 2016, even crashing the servers at one point. It's a huge deal in the Olympics. Eve opens her messages, skipping past a few "Hey sexy"s and gross pickup lines, before coming across a familiar face and familiar name that she had enthusiastically swiped right on earlier that morning. (Oksana even showing up on her Tinder in the first place means that she likes girls in some capacity. So Eve has one foot in the door already. Or that's what she chooses to tell herself.)

Oksana: was your training any better today little dolphin? 🐬

Eve's face immediately lights up at the message, clicking to look through Oksana's pictures once again. She has nothing on her profile that would suggest she even plays any sport at all. Her pictures are all glamorous selfies with perfect hair and makeup, pictures with friends from home and a picture with an older man with grey hair and beard. 'Maybe its her brother', Eve thinks. 

Eve: so much better, you were right! how was yours?

Eve can't stop her heart from skipping several beats as she types, glad that she finally has some method of communication with this girl. (Random attempts at manifesting Oksana have proven unsuccessful over the last twenty four hours. Unsurprisingly. Eve is starting to feel a little dumb deliberately taking detours by the gymnastics blocks in the hopes of seeing her practice, sometimes adding upwards of five minutes onto her journeys across the Village - just on the off chance.)

"Why are you smiling at your phone?" asks Elena and Eve's cheeks flush bright red. She says it's just her Mom (she would never hear the end of this if they knew she was smiling at some random girl calling her 'little dolphin'), but she can't help the excitement bubbling in her stomach as she anticipates a response. She seriously feels like a twelve year old girl waiting on her crush to message her back on AOL. 

It's hard to remember that Oksana is a literal stranger. The whole point of Tinder during the Games is to find one-off sexual partners to get off with then never see or think about again. That's literally all Oksana wants from Eve. But it doesn't stop her waiting with bated breath for a reply. 

She's training for the biggest sports competition in the world, competing to solidify her place in the diving hall of fame and make her country proud, and yet she wants nothing more right now than to just hear about Oksana's day. 

It's 12:32pm when Eve receives a reply from Oksana, the notifications alone almost giving her a panic attack:

Oksana: i told you so!!  
Oksana: and my training went really well too. maybe you should come watch me sometime since i watched you  
Oksana: so what are you up to now? no crying in the cafeteria today i hope

Her cheeks flush at that one. That's really the first impression she had to give this girl? When Eve first laid eyes on Oksana she was effortlessly flirting with a sexy 10/10 American soccer player, eventually dry humping her in the middle of a crowded party with no care in the world. She exudes confidence and desirability and sex appeal. And Eve just sits at parties alone on her phone. And cries in cafeterias. That's the lasting impression Oksana has of her. 

Eve: i swear i'm not normally like that, okay. you caught me at a rough moment. i'm usually more fun

Oksana: i don't believe you. i think you sit in that cafeteria all day in tears to try pick up girls, waiting on a poor girl like me to get caught in your trap and fall in love with you

Eve: maybe so  
Eve: maybe i'll have to show you how fun i can be sometime

Oksana: tell me a time and place and ill be there little dolphin🐬

And it's happening. They're really flirting with each other. Albeit kinda weird flirting, it's flirting nonetheless. Eve finds herself pondering how many girls Oksana has gone through since she arrived in Tokyo. Maybe she just charms everyone she sees, takes what she wants from them and then ghosts them. Or maybe she isn't used to talking cordially to girls like she did with Eve and this is her first time chatting to someone she already has a semi-rapport with. Either way, they're flirting and Eve's heart is about to burst regardless of the circumstance. 

Two days have passed since Oksana sent the first Tinder message to Eve. Every day in the lead up to qualifiers feels like Groundhog Day. Wake up at 7am. Eat Breakfast. Train. Eat lunch. Train some more. Gym. Dinner. Sleep. But now she talks to Eve in the breaks between those activities, splitting up her days a little more, giving her something to look forward to. ('One more floor routine, then I can go text Eve.' she finds herself thinking during Sunday morning's particularly long, boring practise.) 

Oksana isn't the type to catch feelings for anyone. And she certainly hasn't caught feelings for Eve. She has only known her for five days. But there's something about talking to Eve and hearing her stories and seeing her cute emojis that intrigues her like nothing on Earth. For once, she doesn't want to just immediately jump her bones, make her cum and then never speak to her again. She finds herself asking Eve what she had for lunch and what is England like and does she have any pets. Things that she could not give less of a shit about coming from anyone else, but something about hearing them from Eve just hits different. 

Oksana: rise and shine little dolphin🐬

Eve: you wake up so early, whyyy???

Oksana: i don't get tired. back in russia i only sleep for like 4 hours a night. 

Eve: you are a psychopath

Oksana mulls over what she wants to text Eve. The two haven't seen each other in person since the first time they talked four days ago. They talk non stop over the phone and get along like lifelong best friends (or maybe more accurately, schoolgirls with crushes) but apart from that, no one has made the first move to initiate a real life meeting again. 

Oksana: i'm going to breakfast at 7:25 in the main cafeteria. would you like to join me?

She watches as Eve's typing bubble appears, then disappears again, then appears again. 

Oksana doesn't get nervous about this stuff, she's seasoned in getting whatever she wants. Girls don't turn her down, ever. But she can't shake the feeling that asking Eve to breakfast might be a little too far. After all, she's trying to convince herself she just wants to sleep with Eve and move on, but deep down she knows she could've done it by now. She could've told Eve to come over the first time she messaged her. But she didn't. And she doesn't know why. And now she's here essentially asking Eve on a date. Dates are never a prerequisite to sex in the Olympic Village. Tinder flirting isn't even a prerequisite to sex in the Olympic Village, yet here they are. 

Eve: are you asking me on a breakfast date oksana??

Oksana smiles at the message and her cheeks flush a little. Half of her feels utterly ridiculous and the other half doesn't give a single fuck. For days she has wanted to talk to Eve in person and now it might actually happen. 

Oksana: you know i am🐬

Oksana has a thing about dolphins. She ends a lot of their texts with the emoji and calls Eve 'little dolphin'. (Yesterday, Oksana switched it up one time, calling her 'MY little dolphin' and Eve felt like she had died and come back to life.) When questioned, she simply states that it's a cute nickname and the emoji reminds her of Eve. Eve thinks its unfair that there's no cute animal that relates to gymnastics to call Oksana by. Monkey? Doesn't have the same ring to it. Sloth? Nope. So she sticks with Oksana for now. She'll figure out a cute name for her someday. 

Right now though, she's sitting face to face with this ethereal angel for the first time since the first conversation they had. And she's more nervous than she anticipated she'd be. They ordered the same flax seed oatmeal with banana and are entertaining nervous small talk with one another. Over text, Oksana is the embodiment of Cupid, mischievous and flirty, sexual innuendos coming completely natural to her, the height of confidence. In person, however, she is quieter and always seems deep in thought, thoroughly analysing Eve's face and genuinely listening to every single story Eve tells her. Eve remembers that English is not her first language and she has to do lots of translating in her head to keep up the flow of conversation, and Eve doesn't mind - she thinks Oksana's thinking face is the cutest thing she's ever seen. 

"So, why do you play for Team GB when you aren't from GB?" Oksana asks when Eve brings up her home country of America. 

"My dad was born there which makes me eligible to represent them. The outlook also seemed better in England when I was first starting out. It's a smaller diving community over there and therefore more chance to stand out. I live in London now and wouldn't change it for the world. Team USA are great but my heart is with Team GB." Eve has explained this exact story hundreds of times over the years and is quite frankly tired of answering it when a simple Google search will answer it for you, however Oksana is different. She really cares and wants to hear Eve talk about anything and everything, constantly redirecting the conversation to ensure Eve remains the topic. Eve doesn't mind. She would read the dictionary to Oksana if she so wished. She answers all of the inquisitive girl's questions about how she got into diving, why she likes it so much, who she looks up to. 

"It's really amazing to me how much you love diving. I can really see your eyes sparkle when you talk about it, you were made to do it." Oksana notes with a smile. 

Those words really do mean a lot to Eve. Diving has been Eve’s entire life since she was a child and she knows how passionate she can get when she talks about it. Her friends back home aren’t too interested in hearing about it, so it’s nice that Eve has someone new who will happily listen to her gush about her sport. 

"Well don't you feel the same about gymnastics? I watched a video of you winning Gold and I was speechless at how talented you are. You must be so dedicated to make it as far as you have.”

"Gymnastics is all I know. It's not something that excites me or inspires me, it's just something I have always done and something I'm good at," Oksana lets out a breathy laugh and looks down at her bowl. It’s clear through her body language that she doesn’t like to talk about her sport or herself much. She is very much a listener who keeps a lot of things to herself. “It’s hard to truly love something when I know it’s destroying me. I already have irreversible spine and knee defects. My muscles deteriorate further with every routine I practice. Everyday I wake up with pain that I’ve been trained my whole life to ignore. I’ll be crippled before I turn thirty. But it’s what I’m good at, I guess.”

Oksana quickly apologises for oversharing and bringing the mood down, to which Eve just shakes her head. 

"Like you said, sometimes it's nice to have someone completely detached from your sport to talk to. I don't know shit about gymnastics and you don't know shit about diving and it's relieving to be able to talk freely like this, right?"

Oksana nods and looks thoughtful for a moment before speaking up. "If you're free at 8:30 you could come watch me practice on bars and beam. It’s only fair after I creepily stalked you while you trained that first day. I mean you don't have to if you don't want to but if you enjoyed watching me on Youtube then-"

"Stop rambling. Of course I’ll watch you. I'll be there cheering you on the whole time.” 

As Eve watches Oksana's routines from a bench looking down upon the gymnasium, she comes to the conclusion that diving and gymnastics are not as dissimilar as she once thought. Both require strength and velocity and power and flexibility, but in contrast also require grace and style and flow and elegance. They’re even judged in similar ways, with points deducted for poor form and poor timing in both sports. Gymnastics is just diving without the water. Diving is just gymnastics without the equipment.

(She also comes to the conclusion that Oksana looks fucking hot in a leotard.)

Oksana's routines leave Eve in total awe. It hits even harder seeing them in person as opposed to on the cracked screen of her iPhone X in 480p. Her movements are blissfully elegant and refined, a skill that Eve knows first hand is difficult to perfect. She spent years working on her fluency in her movements, and even at 32 years old she is no where near as graceful as the younger girl. As Oksana does a back handspring onto the beam and jumps off with a 2.5 twist layout backflip, Eve feels her heart beating out of her chest. She is feeling the same exhilaration she feels when watching the diving finals, or how she felt watching swimming relays as a seven year old. (She also swoons when Oksana lifts her arms above her head and smiles brightly after each landing.) Eve could really watch Oksana forever, but she has to head to her own training. Dragging herself away from the viewing glass is no easy feat and she vows to spend every second of her free time watching Oksana, or even better, talking to Oksana, just being in Oksana's presence is enough. Hearing her cherubic giggles, helping her when she can't remember the right word in English, staring into her bright doe eyes as she takes in every detail of Eve's stories. 

Eve's training for the biggest sports competition in the world, competing to solidify her place in the diving hall of fame and make her country proud, and yet she wants nothing more than to know what it feels like to kiss this girl and touch this girl and hold hands with this girl. In short, she is fucked. 

3 days pass and Eve has met up with Oksana as much as possible everyday since. 

On Tuesday, they went for lunch together and Oksana took her on her own little personal tour of the Village, showing Eve all her favourite lesser-known spots. At the very edge of the Village is a little duck pond that Eve knew nothing about previously. Both girls sat on a bench and talked about their mornings while feeding the ducks pieces of fancy artisan canteen bread. (“You know bread is like junk food for ducks.” Eve had mused as she watched Oksana launching the bread into the water. “Have you never heard of ‘anything in moderation’?” Oksana replied, throwing a huge chunk towards a tiny duckling, the bread easily three times it’s size.)

On Wednesday, Oksana attempted to teach Eve some ‘easy’ yoga poses under a tree in the Olympic Park. It didn’t end well, with Oksana getting frustrated that Eve didn’t find it easy at all and Eve spending the whole time awestruck by Oksana’s flexibility. (“How can you even bend your body like that? You’re like an elastic band. I swear if I cut you open there would just be noodles in the place of bones.”) 

On Thursday, the girls made use of the Village masseuses for the first time since they arrived, getting full body massages together, quarrelling over who’s bones cracked the most. (Eve attests it was Oksana’s. Oksana attests it was Eve’s. The world may never know.)

Other events are in full swing with China currently topping the overall leaderboards, followed by Russia, followed by USA, followed by GB. Eve realises early on in the Games that Oksana is surprisingly patriotic. Every time Russia get a medal Oksana spams Eve's phone with emojis, Russian caps lock and keyboard smashes. 

(When Eve recieves a video of Oksana singing the Russian National Anthem while sticking her finger up at the camera and smiling mischievously, she decides that competitive Oksana is one of the cutest things she's ever seen.)

Both girls have training until noon but agree to meet for lunch afterwards and then go do some cardio training together. They've never properly trained together before and Eve thinks she might die watching her girl lifting weights in the gym or racing her on the track or swimming lengths of the pool with her. Maybe she can teach Oksana some basic dives in the pool and train her up like she does with the kids back home. 

When she isn't training towards Championships and competitions, Eve teaches beginner, intermediate and advanced swimming and diving classes to kids aged 3-16 in London. It was already her job before she made it big as an Olympian and she never could bring herself to give it up. Watching these kids go from scared to confident is the most satisfying for her, teaching them a vital life skill and hopefully inspiring the next generation of Olympic swimmers and divers. The kids love to hear her stories from the Olympic Games, telling Eve they want to be like her someday. Eve too remembers being a child and wanting to become a swimmer, and if an Olympian had taught her swimming lessons she would probably explode with excitement. So she gets it. 

When she next sees Oksana, she's wearing her classic RUS SIA zip up jacket, along with plain black adidas leggings and a bright red sports bra. Eve has never seen the girl in a sports bra before, nor has she seen any hint of her chest (it is making her feel a little feral). They eat together and catch each other up on their days ("I finally nailed my tucked full-in dismount today!" Oksana squeals. "And I finally perfected my reverse three and a half somersault with a half twist!" Eve replies in an equally excited manner. Neither knows what the other is talking about, but they're proud of each other nonetheless.)

"So I was thinking about our cardio training session. Do you like to swim? We could go to the pool nearby the South American blocks, it's never usually as busy as the main pools. We could just mess around over there. I want to teach you some easy dives," Eve chatters excitedly, her face dropping when she realises Oksana is shaking her head. "Come on! It'll be fun. Are you scared to get your hair wet or something? I can teach you to dive and tomorrow you can teach me to cartwheel or something!"

Oksana chuckles at Eve's enthusiasm, but remains shaking her head. "You're gonna laugh at me when I tell you this. Promise you won't laugh at me."

Eve giggles and pokes at Oksana's sides as Oksana's bottom lip falls into a pout. She is seriously like a little puppy and Eve can't deal with it anymore. Her heart is going to explode. 

"I don't know how to swim."

And that's it. Eve's heart has exploded. That's it. She's done for. And she is now on a mission to teach her girl how to swim. 

Oksana’s attempts to convince herself she only wants sex from Eve are becoming more thinly veiled by the day. It’s day eight. She could have fucked her within hours of meeting her. But it’s day eight and they’re spending their days doing cute borderline romantic stuff instead. She’s by the pool, wearing a borrowed Tokyo 2020 swimsuit, being convinced to face her fear of swimming. She’s facing her biggest fear all for a girl she hasn’t even kissed yet. It isn’t even worth trying to pretend this is just about sex anymore. 

"I look so dumb right now." Oksana whines as Eve tries to convince her to get in the pool. Eve is shoulders deep, gracefully treading water while the younger girl sits on the edge with only her feet in the pool. Oksana normally likes to impress Eve at all times, but now she’s in Eve’s territory, inexperienced and scared and feeling vulnerable. 

"Just come in. It'll be fun I promise."

"Well what if I drown?"

"You won't. I've got you. I'm here to save you if you need me."

Oksana would be lying if she said her heart hasn't completely fallen to her ass at Eve's words. People don't look after her. People don't save her. That's not how life normally goes for her. People take what they want from her, strip her bare and leave her to sink. This isn't normal for Oksana. 

Eve's words are enough to encourage her to put slightly more of her legs into the water, then her waist, then her body, wincing as the cold water sends a chill through her. Why on Earth would anyone spend their time in cold water for fun? Her fingers clench tightly against the side of the pool as she refuses to let go, clinging on for dear life. She’d be lying if she said Eve’s presence behind her wasn’t slightly calming, though. 

"Good job. Now practise kicking your legs," Eve motions down at the gentle treading movements her own legs are doing. "Just copy me."

Oksana attempts to copy what Eve is doing but ends up just frantically kicking, much to Eve's amusement. 

"You look like one of the little ducklings right now. You do look kinda dumb." 

It's enough to set Oksana off, she pulls herself out of the pool and sits back at the edge again, doing her little fake pout and crossing her arms. After a little mini tantrum ("I'm not talking to you anymore, Eve, you are mean to me.") drowned out by Eve's laughs coming from the water, Eve finally steps out and agrees to change back into normal workout clothes with her. 

They’re walking towards the gym and Oksana is huffing about how she smells like pool and how she doesn’t understand why Eve does that for fun. 

Just as Oksana is about to suggest that Eve come back to her room to chill for a bit instead of working out, Eve's phone rings. She can hear the loud voice clear as day from the other end of the line. 

"Hello?"  
"Hi Eve, where are you? We are all at the tennis courts waiting on you. We said 3pm remember?"  
"Oh shit guys, sorry I forgot. I've been with a friend. I'll be with you guys in five minutes I promise."  
"Is this the friend that you've been blushing and smiling at while texting? The same friend you've ditched us for over the last few days?"  
"Shut up Elena. I'll be there in five minutes. See you."

(Oksana hears Elena’s last few words, eliciting an eyebrow raise from her. Eve’s cheeks flush once again.)

"I promised my friends I'd meet them for tennis, I have to go," Eve says, noting Oksana's cute little pout as she hung up the phone. "I'll be an hour tops. I can meet you later?"

"Sure...I was wondering if you maybe wanted to come see my room later. I mean it probably looks the same as yours but...my coach made sure I got a TV with a good movie package and maybe we could watch a movie? It's okay if you don't want to but-"

Eve shuts her up with a tiny little peck on the cheek. "All you do is ramble, baby. You know I'll come. Text me a time with the block and room number. I'll see you soon."

Eve smiles as she walks off towards the tennis courts, leaving Oksana standing there in awe. Eve kissed her on the cheek. Eve is coming over tonight. Eve called her baby. Eve looks so beautiful, her dumb Union Jack tracksuit accentuating her flawless figure perfectly, the low afternoon Tokyo sun casting rays of light over her perfect little curls and making them appear the colour of honey, the sway of her hips as she walks. And fuck. She's in deep.

"So tell me about your friend. Is she a diver? Are you guys having sex? Where is she from?" Elena asks, in between serves and backhanded shots. They're half way through a tennis game that no one is particularly invested in. It's Eve and Elena playing doubles against Kenny and Hugo in one of the smaller tennis courts designed for leisure games. Elena seems to be fully convinced that Eve has been ditching them to go bang some hot athlete everyday and won’t stop until she gets the confession from Eve. 

"She's Russian, she's a gymnast and we are just friends. We talk to each other and give moral support. Literally nothing more than that." Eve explains while playing a drop shot that Kenny and Hugo both miss, scoring a point for the girls team. Eve forgot how much she hates playing tennis. 

"Oooh... I love gymnastics! If it's Oksana Astankova I'll be impressed," says Elena half-jokingly, but the smile and raised eyebrow Eve gives her says it all. "Wait is it actually her?"

"Uh...yeah. I don't know why you're so shocked."

"She's like... Olympian Hall of Fame level. I've seen her do interviews before, she's a total bitch. She downright refuses to talk sometimes. Apparently she gets to stay in this five star suite in the Village because she refuses to be around other people who aren't at her level. Her room has a butler." Elena lists off all the rumours she has heard about Eve's new friend, bouncing the tennis ball a couple times with her racquet before serving again. 

"The media say a lot of things, Elena. Some people don't like doing interviews and as for her room, I'm going there later. I'll be sure to send you pictures from the luxury mansion." Eve scoffs, not believing a word of the diva rumours surrounding her girl. Even when Oksana isn't here, she finds herself protecting her name like her life depends on it. Eve has only heard a small amount about Oksana's past hardships and she imagines adding rumours like this to the mix can't be much fun for her. 

The team decide to call it quits on the game after an hour and a half when they're all too bored and hungry to continue. Quite frankly, none of them know the proper rules for when to end a tennis game anyway. Eve checks her phone and sees twenty messages from Oksana, the majority of which are emojis and Cyrillic scrawl that Eve vows to learn to read someday and she takes the hint that Russia must have won some more Golds while they were apart. The last two texts are slightly different however: one a selfie of Oksana's perfect little face pouting as she eats dinner alone (something the two haven't done without each other for days.) and a message below it reading 'i miss you'. 

Eve feels her stomach take a dive and she exhales sharply as she types out a quick little: 'i missed you too, when should i come over?'

It's 6pm when Eve is finally making her way up the elevator in the Team Russia building, looking for Oksana's room on the fourteenth floor. She's nervous. It feels like a booty call. Oksana did not booty call her. But it very much feels like a booty call. 

It has been eight days now since Eve first laid eyes on Oksana. Preliminaries are in four days, semifinals in five and, if she gets this far, finals are in a less than a week. Athletes five days before their event should be at the top of their game, working overtime to perfect their routines and make sure their confidence is in no way wavered. Eve should be diving right now. Kenny and Hugo and Jess and Elena are voluntarily practising their routines over in the diving block, going over and above what is expected for them training-wise. Rumour has it that the Chinese divers train non-stop for eighteen hours a day over in their block. China are the undisputed champions of team diving every year, with GB vowing to take a leaf out of their book during these Games. Yet here is Eve watching the dial inside the Team Russia elevator turn from 12 to 13 to 14 and as it comes to a stop she takes a deep breath. ('It's not a booty call, it's not a booty call, it's not a booty call' Eve repeats over and over in her head as she scans the door numbers looking for Oksana's room.)

"Come in, it's open!" she hears Oksana's gentle voice as she knocks hesitantly on a door, originally unsure if she even had the right room or if some angry Russian weightlifter was gonna come out and yell at her. As she opens the door and steps inside, she is met with the communal space of Team Russia gymnastics' apartment where Oksana stands finishing up dishes by the sink while chattering away in Russian to two girls who give Eve tentative smiles and head nods when she enters. 

Hearing Oksana speak in Russian awakens something in the pit of Eve's stomach in a way she hadn't expected. Her tone is lower and sounds more solemn and sexy, losing all the inhibitions she seems to have when she speaks English. Eve decides that the sound of her girl speaking her native language is music to her ears. (She wants to be lowered into her grave to the sound of it). It occurs to Eve in that moment that in her thirty two years of life, she has never learned how to say hello in Russian, deciding a simple wave at her teammates will suffice. She hopes they wave hello to each other in Russia too. Or maybe they think she's crazy and she will forever be known as Oksana's weird friend. Come to think of it, she doesn't know why she is stressing so much about what Oksana's team think of her. It really feels like she's meeting the parents or something. But it's just a movie date. Not a booty call. Nothing serious. Just friends being-

Eve is ripped from her thoughts when she hears Oksana speak in English again, tone immediately higher and more airy. Inflections at the end of every sentence make it sound like everything she says is a question. "My room is the first on the right. I even cleaned it up for you coming so be grateful."

Evidently, Oksana does not live in some five star pent suite the way Elena had suggested. It's just a basic twin room like the rest of the athletes. When this is brought up, Oksana just giggles and nods, obviously having heard it all before. "I don't share anything about myself with the press. The only way I want to be perceived is through my routines. It gives the media lots of scope to make things up about me. If no one knows anything at all about me, they can make up anything they want and people will believe it."

It's an interesting concept to Eve, who has never exactly made any attempt at sheltering herself from the public eye. She partakes in hundreds of interviews during Championship season and does speeches in schools, overall a well-known and well-respected Olympian. Eve recalls a little girl using her Make-a-Wish Foundation wish to meet her, spending the majority of her short life idolising her and dreaming about doing what she does. She was part of a BuzzFeed video, titled "Kids Meet an Olympic Diver" where she was asked adorable questions like 'What would happen if you missed the water and hit the ground instead?' and 'Do the pools have fish in them?'. She is currently the face of Adidas alongside some of the other 2016 Gold medallists and has done brand deals with most of the main UK sportswear companies. She is well-respected within LGBT circles as well, being out and proud as a lesbian paving the way in sports. All in all, she's no stranger to the public eye and likes it that way. Kids look up to her and adults live vicariously through her and she can't imagine it any other way. 

"So the only things the public know about you are gymnastics related?"

"Yeah. When I Googled you to watch your Rio win there was so much stuff about you online that you share. Stuff about your family life and your friends and partners. I saw you talking about your sexuality in an interview and it just seems so different to me. I can't talk about that stuff in Russia, so I just completely step back from all interviews to be on the safe side."

(The two girls are laying down together on Oksana's bed now, propped up by pillows in front of Oksana's 32" TV. While Oksana's room is identical to Eve's in every other way, Eve's room only has a tiny box TV that she isn't even sure turns on. Oksana explains that whatever she asks her coach for, she gets.)

"I'm sorry that you can't talk about your sexuality over there. It must be really tough for you." Eve offers, not really knowing what else to say. 

Oksana just rolls her eyes and laughs a little. "I don't care, I'm retiring soon. When I retire I'll move to London or Paris or Barcelona and live out my life the way I want to. The only thing keeping me in Russia is gym so it won't affect me for much longer."

"You don't have family in Russia?" Eve asks, though regrets it straight away, feeling she is overstepping a boundary. Oksana never usually likes to talk about herself or her life or Russia like she is doing now, and Eve doesn't want to scare her back into her shell by being too eager. 

Oksana shakes her head and points at her wall with around 20 pictures of a little black cat pinned up by push pins. Some pictures are selfies that Oksana has taken with the cat, the cat licking her face or standing with its paw on her nose, while others are pictures of the cat as a newborn, sleeping on an arm she assumes to be Oksana's. Eve once again swoons, imagining her girl looking after a little kitty back home. 

"Her name is Sasha," Oksana smiles brightly and coos as though shes talking about a real baby. "One day I woke up to a pregnant cat on my doorstep and gave her food and water, and a week later I was a Mommy to five kittens. I nursed them and gave them a place to stay for weeks until their Mom lost interest in them and left. Sasha was one of the babies, I just had to keep her. She keeps me company. She's all I have back in Russia."

Conversation flows for hours between the two, talking about childhood and friends and pets and food and fashion and everything in between. Oksana teaches Eve to curse in Russian and Eve teaches Oksana to curse in Korean. Eve insists they play 20 questions (with Oksana giggling about how she sounds like a thirteen year old boy) asking questions like 'what would your dream career be outside of sport?' 'what’s your favourite animal?' 'what is your favourite country you've ever been to?'. 

It's 8pm when Eve realises they're cuddling. During the two hour period since Eve arrived, they went from sitting upright on Oksana's bed, to now lying down flat, Oksana's head on Eve's shoulder, facing her neck, arm round her waist. It's awkward and unconventional on Eve's part, but its a cuddle nonetheless. Eve turns onto her side so that the two are facing each other, faces just inches away, Oksana's arm still lazily resting on Eve's waist as they continue chattering the way they have been for hours. 

"I like you. A lot." Oksana blurts out suddenly after ranting to Eve about conspiracy theories she believes in ("Who built the pyramids then, if it wasn't aliens?"). 

A stray strand of hair falls into Oksana's face as she speaks, which Eve reaches up to tuck behind her hair before replying, "I like you a lot too."

And it's Oksana's idea. Whatever happens next is completely Oksana's idea and Eve refuses to take the blame for it. Her team are probably having a well deserved pudding and card game together right now after smashing it at training, reinforcing to themselves and to Bill and to the Heavens above that they have what it takes to go for Gold. And yet here is Eve, caught up and distracted and focusing on the wrong thing as she passionately kisses Oksana in her twin bed. 

Oksana started it, gently pecking Eve on the lips at first, then again for a little longer, and now Oksana is straddling her as their lips and tongues move so perfectly in synch together. They're in no hurry to pick up the pace or get any filthier than this yet. It's gentle and beautiful and graceful and perfect. Eve pulls away to catch a breath, smiling a little as they pant heavily into each other's mouths before colliding again. Eve feels weaker than she has ever felt in her life, only able to focus on the feeling of Oksana's perfect lips and tongue, her senses completely hauled into overdrive and this is what she has been waiting for since the first time she laid eyes on her. Eve is sure she's in heaven when she feels delicate hands tugging at her curls and soft whines coming from above her as Oksana grinds down against her leg and she has to keep reminding herself that this is really happening right now. Oksana pulls away from her lips and begins kissing and biting Eve's neck, hard enough to elicit a moan from Eve beneath her but not hard enough to leave any permanent marks. She'll save those until after Eve has finished competing. 

Restless hands grab Oksana's waist, then move up her back, then down to her butt and back up to her waist and Eve physically can't stop touching her, feeling intoxicated and woozy, taking all that she can. 

"Are we...?" Eve starts, voice trailing off as Oksana nips at a particularly sensitive area of her neck, causing Eve to thrust her hips upwards as she does.

"Do you want to?" Oksana breathes out, finally lifting her head to look at Eve, pupils blown out and looking absolutely wrecked already. 

Eve nods frantically, not even trusting that her voice won't fail her at this point. Oksana unzips Eve's dumb Union Jack track top ("It's seriously the ugliest thing I've ever seen." Oksana had remarked earlier that day. Eve just rolled her eyes and gestured to hers, "Yours isn't much better, Red Scare."). Eve wears a navy Lycra tank top underneath, which she has to assist Oksana in removing, eliciting a huff from the impatient, needy girl above her. Oksana shimmies her own track jacket off, leaving her in just the red sports bra Eve had previously gotten a glimpse of earlier. 

When it comes to sex in the Olympics, it is a case of listening to your body. If you want it (and you have a consenting partner who also wants it) you just have to go for it. They are already half way into the Games, many athletes have completed their events and are packing up to leave. Time is of the essence here. There are eight days remaining until the Closing Ceremony, where Eve will have to part ways with Oksana and never see her again, so what's the sense in waiting any longer to jump her bones?

"I'm so in love with your body," Oksana marvels as she straddles Eve's waist, gently trailing a finger along the solid abs and six pack. Diving and swimming non-stop for the last 24 years has given Eve a body chiselled by the Gods. She has more strength in one arm than some people have in their entire body, which makes the majority of her hook-ups back home pretty average. She can easily overpower and dominate any of her sexual partners back home without even necessarily meaning to, so it's always exciting to sleep with a fellow athlete who is just as strong as she is. No one has the upper ground (unless otherwise established) and no one tires out easily, allowing round after round.

Oksana begins tugging at the waistband of Eve's leggings, silently begging her to take them off. Eve takes the hint and Oksana briefly stands up to take hers off too, leaving them both in just their sports bras and thongs, immediately resuming their kissing and touching. Now though, Eve flips them around so that she is straddling Oksana, kissing down her neck until she reaches the top of her sports bra, tugging on the bottom to pull it up over her head. 

Eve immediately gets to work, taking Oksana's right nipple into her mouth while massaging her left breast, revelling in the desperate whines Oksana is trying her hardest to hold in. When Oksana pulls Eve's sports bra over her head in one swift movement with little to no assistance, Eve giggles at her. 

"Someone's eager."

"Need you now, Eve. You take too long."

With that, Oksana flips Eve onto her back like before, kissing down her body, stopping for a moment to give her neglected nipples some attention, before making her way further down. Eve's torso is rock hard, with clean, defined lines that Oksana could kiss and touch and bask in forever. But they don't have forever. They have eight days. 

Her kisses go lower and lower until she is directly between Eve's legs, sucking and kissing at her strong, muscly inner thighs. Thighs that could probably crush her head into pieces like a nutcracker. One day she's going to take her time appreciating the entirety of Eve's consecrated body, making love to every inch of it, worshipping Eve in the way she's crying out to be worshipped. Right now though, she's going to give Eve what she's desperate for, if the hands in Oksana's hair and softly muttered "Fuck"s are anything to go by. 

Oksana breaths hotly over Eve's pantie-clad pussy, running one finger up and down it, giving Eve something but it's not nearly enough. (Eve comes to the understanding that Oksana is perfectly fine with teasing as long as she isn't the one being teased- she's going to get her back for it eventually.) Oksana begins to focus her finger on Eve's clit, lightly rubbing her there on top of her underwear, watching in awe as Eve's inner thighs clench and her breathy sighs increase in frequency. Wetness is seeping out through her panties as Oksana strokes her clit with a practised ease. 

"You're wet for me, huh?" Oksana asks, voice infuriatingly calm and in control, contrasting against the wrecked whines spilling out of Eve's mouth despite her efforts to keep them in. "You want me to take these off?"

All Eve can do is nod and whisper out another 'please' as Oksana continues to tease her. This isn't what she's used to. Eve prides herself in her ability to make girls beg for her, remaining coolly in control of the situation at all times, listening to their desperate moans knowing they're all for her. She feels more and more humiliated with every pathetic noise she lets out as Oksana strums her clit through her panties like shes playing an acoustic guitar.

"I like to hear you, Eve, let it all out." 

There's a tap on her butt, signalling her to lift up to allow Oksana to remove the soaked underwear and toss them away. Normally, Eve would be embarrassed about getting this worked up before she's even been properly touched, but Oksana has her head between her legs before she can think about it and she can feel her hot breath against her pussy and - fuck. 

Oksana gives Eve's pussy a broad lick, from hole to clit, tongue capturing all the essence that had leaked out during their makeout session and the little touch alone makes Eve's butt jerk up from the bed. Desperate hands find their way back to Oksana's hair, guiding her mouth up to her clit. Oksana's mouth attaches onto her clit, alternating between sucking with her lips and lapping with her tongue with experienced ease. 

"Fuck, baby, you're so good at this." Eve manages to let out, causing Oksana to moan at the praise. Eve's eyebrow raises at her noise, deciding to push it a little further to gauge Oksana's reaction. "Such a pretty girl. You know what you're doing, huh? So good."

Her suspicions are proven right when Oksana literally preens at her words, nodding and looking up with her dark, wrecked eyes. She has a praise kink. Eve instantly feels so much more in control of the situation, something she is comfortable and experienced with. 

"You just wanna make me feel good don't you?" This elicits another nod from Oksana, with every head movement sending shockwaves throughout Eve's body. She's embarrassingly close already. 

Two fingers are pressed against Eve's entrance tentatively, pushing in slowly and staying there, as if waiting for permission to move. Eve sighs out a little "Keep going, that's good." and Oksana begins curling her fingers inside Eve, searching her inner walls for the spongey texture of her g-spot, and she knows she's found it when her moans increase in pitch and volume. Oksana's teammates can definitely hear them now, which should humiliate Eve, but in the throes of pleasure almost turns her on more instead. 

Oksana's angelic tongue is lapping quicker now, like a cat drinking milk, and it's obvious by the tightening of Eve's abdomen and the grip on her hair, she's close. A third finger is added alongside the other two, this time thrusting them in and out, hitting Eve's spot every time they enter, causing Eve's hips to lift, practically riding Oksana's face as she climbs the mountain. 

"Baby, keep going," Eve lets out a guttural groan as Oksana changes the angle of her fingers ever so slightly. "You're doing so well."

She swears she sees a smile rise to Oksana's lips at her words. Both women maintain intense eye contact as Oksana eats her out like it's her fucking life source. Her girl looks fucking lewd from this angle. She is never going to tire of the sight. Eve moans and curses loudly as Oksana brings her right to her peak, nearly shouting as she pushes her over it. ("Fuck!" "So good!” “Oksana!") The Russian continues her motions throughout the entirety of Eve's orgasm, only stopping when Eve is too overstimulated and physically pushes her head away. Even then, she leans back down to clean Eve up a little (making sure to avoid her sensitive clit), lapping up all the evidence of what they have just done together. Oksana thinks she'll never tire of Eve's taste and scent and sounds. 

Eve sighs as she flops onto her side, floating on the cloud of post orgasmic haze. Oksana giggles and flops down next to her, staring into her glazed over eyes and giving her a little peck on the lips. 

"How did I do?" she asks, smiling and batting her eyelashes in an exaggerated manner. 

"You know you did good," Eve replies with a false eye roll, not missing the glint in Oksana's eye when she says it. "In fact, I think you just wanna hear me say it. You just want me to tell you you're a good girl, huh?"

Oksana nods, unable to ignore the wetness pooling in her panties when Eve praises her. Gym is the only single place where Oksana recieves any sort of praise, and hearing praise from Eve in a non-gym context gives her this warm feeling inside. It feels new and protective and cozy. She can't count all the World Championship medals she has received over the years, all the "Gymnast of the Year" awards, the "One to watch" ratings by the bookmakers. All her gym accolades seem to merge into one, but what she has here with Eve feels special and new and different. Eve telling her she did a good job means more to her than any medal. 

Eve sits up, motioning Oksana to do the same as she attaches their lips once again. Oksana immediately whines desperately into the kiss, having been touch starved the entire time, growing needier by the second. Eve pulls away and lies down on the bed with her legs spread, upper body upright against the headboard and taps the space between her legs for Oksana to lay in which she happy obliges. Eve is still fully naked, with Oksana now laying back against her front wearing only her black satin thong, glistening with the wetness that managed to seep out while she focused on making Eve feel good. 

"You want me to take care of you now, baby?" Eve asks gently, while running her hands along Oksana's perfect little toned torso. Its not as physically defined as Eve's, she doesn't have a six pack like Eve does, but she has the most gorgeous obliques, 11 line abs and petite waist. Her breasts are bigger than Eve's, maybe a D cup at maximum, the precise size to be cupped perfectly by Eve's hands. Eve briefly wonders what she did in a past life to have this ethereal angel so pliant and needy for her, being so so good. 

One of Eve's hands holds Oksana's left breast soothingly (it's more of a closeness thing than sexual, it just feels so intimate and warm to touch her like this) circling the nipple with her fingers til it's taut then just cupping with her palm again. Oksana's body is so responsive to every single touch Eve gives her which Eve realises is probably due to the teasing and delay in giving her what she needs. Eve takes mercy on her and slips her right hand straight down into Oksana's panties, finding her clit straight away and rubbing the little nub in gentle circles, wallowing in every little whine Oksana lets out.

Eve leans down to kiss at Oksana's neck, having learned from their makeout session earlier that this is a main erogenous zone for her, causing her to buck her hips up into Eve's hand when she kisses her there. Oksana's moans start to pick up in pace when she begins moving her hips up and down off the bed to rub Eve's hand harder against her clit and eventually she is just a wrecked mess who can only muster one word and its 'Eve. Eve. Eve.'

Eve moves the hand currently resting on Oksana's boob and instead presses down on her abdomen with it, stopping her from raising her hips and grinding against Eve's hand. "Shhh...you're getting yourself all worked up, baby. I need you to stay still and take what I give you, okay? Don't be greedy. Can you do that for me?"

Oksana cranes her neck to look behind her to face Eve and nods weakly, her eyes watering and shaky hand fumbling to hold Eve's free hand. She is so overwhelmed and turned on and just wants Eve to make her feel good and protect her and hold her. She preens once again as Eve calls her a good girl and resumes her movements. Eve is alternating between side to side rubbing and drawing neat little circles on Oksana's sensitive clit, gradually speeding up when Oksana's moans get louder and more frequent. Whenever Oksana gets too greedy, be it through gyrating her hips or whining at Eve to go faster, Eve's motions on her clit stop. It doesn't take long for Oksana to learn that she has to take what Eve gives her and be grateful for it or she gets nothing at all. 

Eve knows when Oksana is close because she starts fidgeting. Her fingers on the hand that Eve is holding begin to tremble and her toes are curling and uncurling frantically. Under normal circumstances, she'd find it hard to keep her body still in the build up to her high, but Eve has made it clear that she can't move if she wants to be a good girl. 

"You're close, baby?" Eve asks, knowing Oksana is too wrecked to tell her herself. A choked whine from Oksana is all the answer she needs as she speeds up the hand circling her clit even more. (She will teach Oksana to use her words properly another time.) "You're such a good girl. Come for me whenever you're ready sweetheart, you look so beautiful like this. So good."

And with Eve's words she is thrown into her high, feeling like she has reached Nirvana, feeling like a pheonix burning up only to be reborn again, rising from the ashes a new woman. She never ever feels this way after an orgasm. Normally she lets a girl lazily lick her clit for ten minutes, reach a 5/10 orgasm if she reaches one at all, and then lays the girl down to focus on her. That's just the way she assumed sex should go. Maybe there's some sort of spiritual connection between her and Eve, some sort of twin flame dynamic where their souls are magnetically attached, two halves of one entity. Maybe they're soulmates and were destined to meet at this time, under these circumstances and in this setting. Or maybe Eve is just good at sex and this is way too much analysis. Either way, Oksana never wants the warm feeling in her gut to go away when Eve looks after her and is tender with her. It's all just very new and exciting and interesting and scary for her. Oksana thinks she might be dead. 

The girls lay in silence for around ten minutes after Oksana's orgasm, just enjoying each other's presence, naked and pressed together. Eve's hands play with Oksana's hair gently as Oksana sighs contentedly, eyes transfixed on one of the clinical white walls of her room. 

"What's on your mind?" Eve asks, the cogs turning in Oksana's mind practically audible in the comfortable silence of the room. 

"I really like you." Oksana states, voice slightly hoarse from all the moaning. She is well aware that she told Eve this earlier, but it's all she can think about. How much she likes Eve. She likes everything about her. Her beautiful hair and face and body, her resilience and confidence and love of her sport, the way she gives Oksana love and attention that she's never experienced before. 

"I really like you too, baby. We went over this earlier." Eve replies with a giggle, one of her hands still absentmindedly massaging Oksana's scalp. 

"Would you stay with me here? Tonight?"

"I don't have my stuff here. I need to brush my teeth and wash my face and-" Eve stops talking immediately when she sees Oksana's little pout, the pout she has never been able to say no to and can't imagine herself ever being able to say no to. "Fine. I'll stay. But you don't get to complain about morning breath tomorrow!"

Oksana giggles, giving Eve a peck on the lips then cuddling up right next to her, pulling the duvet over them both as she closes her eyes and allows herself to fall sleep, content with the knowledge that Eve is going to be right there with her all night.

Her Eve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we’re getting there guys!! now they’ve started fuccing they won’t stop
> 
> man i posted chapter one last night then went out for dinner expecting to come back to like 10 hits at most and came back to over 200?? wtf?? 
> 
> thank u sooo much for taking time out of ur day to read my adhd fuelled ramblings it really means so so much to me
> 
> if you guys have friends who might enjoy this i’d love if u could spread the word🥺🥺
> 
> also even if you think u arent interested in gymnastics: watch simone biles floor routines and imagine v doing them. its an instant nut.
> 
> twitter: @astankovas_


	3. and stuff?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more fluff and smut and domesticity ur welcome
> 
> NSFW

It's three days until preliminaries. Three days until Eve finds out if Tokyo was simply a wasted journey or a final chance at victory. Casting her mind back to when she first began competing, Eve reflects on how she even got to her position in the first place. 

_The year is 1999. Eve is eleven years old and the mailman has just dropped a letter in the mailbox addressed specifically to her, stamped with the Team USA logo. Hurriedly grabbing the letter, she runs to her Dad who looks up from the book he's reading and sits up straighter in his armchair, knowing how long little Eve has been anticipating this day. He taps his knees, motioning the little girl to come sit on his lap while they open it together, gasping as they read its contents simultaneously. It's an invitation for Eve to join the Junior National Squad._

_Every year, thirty of the most promising young American divers under the age of fourteen are chosen to represent Team USA. Being a member of the squad means guaranteed entry into Junior Continental Championships which are normally a fast pass into World Championships if you're good enough and then for the select lucky few, into the Olympics. Connecticut's diving scene is pretty small, with Eve easily dominating the leaderboards in the limited junior statewide competitions. Eve wants to be in the Olympics. Statewide competitions held in community college pools with ten competitors and three Z-List judges won't take her to the Olympics. She needed to get herself out there. After begging her father for weeks to drive her to the squad tryouts two and a half hours away in New York, she was finally able to showcase her skills to real diving professionals, showing them what she's capable of and impressing the Gold medal decorated ex-Olympian divers who judged the panel. Eve was finally being praised for her talent by someone other than her diving coach and her parents and she was high on the feeling. This is the beginning, her first real taste of success and it's addicting. She won't stop until she's at the top._

Eve awakens before Oksana does. The girls are tangled up together, their naked bodies overheating under the 13 tog duvet. The weather in Tokyo is unbearably hot and humid in August which isn't something Eve had anticipated before arriving. Brazil's positioning in the Southern Hemisphere meant that Rio 2016 took place during the height of winter, with comfortable temperatures and dry air that were optimal to sleep and work out in. All Eve wants to do the second she opens her eyes is kick off the sheets and get away from the body heat radiating from next to her, causing her to burn up. 

But she remembers it's Oksana. And the memories of what they did last night come rushing back to her. Her sleeping girl is laying on her tummy with her head facing away from Eve, limbs lazily splayed across the bed and Eve's torso. She's like a starfish, taking up the majority of the bed while Eve is confined to the very edge. If it were anyone else, Eve would grumble about how she's sleeping on the couch next time, but Oksana looks so peaceful and comfy and content like this and Eve doesn't have the heart to complain. She gently wiggles her way out of the bed, trying her hardest not to wake her girl as she rises to get dressed. Yesterday's clothes are too gross and sweaty to put back on, so Eve instead opts for folding them up and borrowing a t-shirt and shorts from Oksana's pop-up wardrobe, filled to the brim with a selection of patriotic Russian attire provided by the Olympic committee. 

Eve wonders what sort of clothing Oksana wears when she isn't competing or working out. For the most part, wearing clothes brought from home is discouraged in the Olympic Village just incase any brands or manufacturers clash with the event's sponsors. Wearing the national clothing for your team around the Village is always the safest bet if you want to keep your brand deal money and contacts intact. Still, it's interesting to imagine what Oksana likes to wear on her own accord. Pictures from her Tinder are mainly taken from the neck up with her clothes concealed for the most part, allowing Eve's imagination to run wild, imagining her girl in high fashion suits and expensive, designer shoes. 

Oksana had mentioned a few times that she grew up extremely wealthy, parents practically buying her into the top gymnastics school in the country and paying sickening amounts of money to send her to different European countries for expensive, intensive tumbling courses. She was practically raised entirely by her ex gymnastics coach from a young age, with her parents taking little responsibility for her upbringing. While she doesn't talk about her parents much, she refers to them in the past tense and Eve can only assume that they're either dead or don't have a relationship with their daughter anymore. Whatever the circumstance, Oksana doesn't seem too bothered by it, seeming all too comfortable getting by in life on her own. 

Eve picks out the most bland and unassuming t-shirt Oksana has in her wardrobe, which isn't saying much considering the over-the-top ridiculousness of every single garment in there. It's going to be embarrassing enough making the half a mile long walk of shame from the Russia building to the GB building carrying her gross, sweaty clothes. Drawing even more attention by wearing obvious Russian memorabilia when she is clearly not Russian will make matters so much worse, making it obvious to the thousands of athletes she walks past that she did not sleep in her own apartment last night (and mid-way through the Games at that). It's a plain white t-shirt for the most part. There are small Russian flags on each sleeve and a scrawl of Cyrillic text along the chest. It reads 'ПОБЕДИТЕЛЬ' which could literally mean anything as far as Eve is concerned. Eve finds a plain black pair of three quarter length cycling shorts and throws them on too. Oksana won't mind, maybe even finding Eve wearing her clothes attractive. Eve plants a kiss to the still-sleeping girl's forehead and heads towards the door, hoping to quietly sneak out without having to awkwardly acknowledge any of her roommates when a small, croaky voice stops her in her steps. 

"Победитель." Oksana mutters, eyes only half open, voice thick with sleep. 

Eve smiles at her girl, watching as she stretches out, indistinguishable from a little tired cat. "Morning, sleepyhead. It's just me. I've got to go train right now but I'll text you later, alright?"

"You're wearing my clothes," Oksana comments with a small smile, silently hoping she sprayed enough perfume on that shirt the last time she wore it that Eve will have Oksana's scent lingering in her room all day. "Победитель. It's what the shirt says. It means 'winner'."

Eve's face softens at this, honestly just relieved that it isn't some curse word or controversial phrase that's going to end her career overnight like she convinced herself it could be (she can't imagine being photographed wearing a shirt around the Village that says "I hate the gays" or "Bush did 9/11" in Russian would go down particularly well with the mass media.) Part of her also thinks about the irony of it. 'Winner' is exactly how she would describe herself right now, having just spent the night with this otherworldly being, earning her complete trust and then waking up in her arms. Perhaps her subconscious mind was drawn to the t-shirt for that very reason. Eve almost throws up at the cheesiness of her own thoughts, kissing Oksana goodbye one more time before leaving her apartment. 

One word echoes in her mind for the entire walk back to her building. 'Winner.'

"You're late," are the first words spoken to Oksana since Eve left her room a few hours earlier. "You were supposed to be here an hour ago."

Konstantin is used to this by now, having coached her almost every single day for the past two years. Back in Russia, there were days when Oksana would show up to training still drunk from nights out, head spinning too much to even pull herself up onto the balance beam. Other times, she'd bring whatever fuck buddy she was currently seeing to 'come watch her practice', instead using up most of her precious training time making out with them on the sidelines. During a particularly rough period after initially dropping her old coach, Oksana developed a recreational drug problem which put her in genuine danger whenever she tried to complete her floor routines high as a kite. Konstantin is used to putting up with her shit and helping her through her problems. He's secretly just glad she turned up at all, what with her having a reputation for blowing off important meets for no apparent reason. Oksana knows she's good at what she does and after thirteen straight years of practising every day, she likes to think she can afford to miss a few days. 

"I was too tired. Would you rather I showed up exhausted and injured myself because I wasn't focused? What if I couldn't compete in the Games 'cuz I fractured my spine? You'd tell me I shouldn't have come." Used to getting out of situations like these, Oksana knows exactly what to say to stay in her coach's good books. Her signature pout combined with Konstantin's soft spot for her work in her favour every time. (Plus, she's not wrong about the injury part. She couldn't stop thinking about Eve all morning and she frankly didn't trust herself not to think about her tits during a dismount and break every bone in her body.)

"Preliminaries are in three days," Konstantin sighs, knowing fine well that Oksana has never failed to pass a qualifier in her life and he doesn't really have a leg to stand on by telling her this. "Look, I know you’ll pass and you know you’ll pass but I don't want you setting a bad example for your teammates. You know they look up to you. You get lazy, they get lazy. And they can't afford it like you can."

This elicits an eyeroll from Oksana, but she straps and chalks up her hands nonetheless, ready to showcase her bar routine for probably the hundredth time this week. 

Gymnastics is hard work even at it's most basic. As a child and teenager growing up in Moscow, Oksana would spend up to ten hours a day in training with minimal breaks, minimal food and minimal encouragement. It was all or nothing for her. The girl would spend more time in the gym than she did at school, eventually requiring a private tutor to homeschool her during the few free hours she had. (Most of her tutoring took place in the gym, sitting on a crash mat in perfect splits position while learning her times tables.) Her parents taught her that this was simply expected of her, giving her no say in any aspect. They wanted her to become an Olympian and didn't care what she had to go through to get there. 

The sport requires perfection in every aspect, perhaps more so than in any other sport. Form must be absolutely precise, toes always pointed, legs properly separated or connected depending on the skill (exactly 180° separated on split jumps, held closely together during pike skills). Knees must bend just enough on landing to protect from injury, but must also appear straight enough to blend seamlessly into the next move. Any injuries acquired during a routine must be ignored completely (causing Oksana to perform through broken ankles, fingers and toes in the past.) As a result of this high pain tolerance being drilled into her from a young age, she often sprains and twists her joints without even noticing, once breaking her wrist and only finding out about it weeks later during a routine medical check-up with the sports practitioner. Routines must be perfectly polished, with every movement appearing to be planned. Any wiggles or stutter steps cause judges to dock points and any short pauses are classed as missed connections, disrupting the flow of the routine. Oksana is notorious in the gym world for constantly being rewarded the highest amount of points possible in her Championship routines, knowing better than to stumble on her landings or hesitate before jumps. She's Russia's number one for a reason. 

For the next four hours in training, Oksana repeats her routines like clockwork (making Konstantin proud as ever despite her previous tardiness) before it occurs to her that she hasn't checked her phone since she got here. It's great in the sense that she wasn't distracted during one of the most important training days of the Games, but she never usually goes this long without texting Eve. What if Eve thinks she only wanted sex and now that she got it she's done with her? She pulls out her phone to a string of texts from Eve (neither of them are one to shy away from double or triple or twenty-in-a-row texting.)

10:23am  
Eve: sorry if i woke you up this morning  
Eve: you looked so peaceful i tried my hardest not to  
Eve: i hope you have a good day today in your training, i know you'll smash it

11:03am  
Eve: do you want to meet for lunch later? let me know when you get off practise and i'll meet you  
Eve: my practise ends at one. we can get something to eat then cardio train after 

11:31am  
Eve: are you even awake yet?  
Eve: GB won four medals yesterday, russia only won three. so i think i should get to pick what we do later. are you any good at weightlifting?

Oksana feels a pang in her chest. It's really not a big deal. She just forgot to reply. Because she was busy training for the Olympic Games. It really is a perfectly valid excuse. But still, she can't help but feel bad seeing seven texts from Eve without replies, especially considering the timing of what happened last night. Oksana knows all too well the feeling of being used for sex then ghosted immediately after. It's what the whole first week of Rio 2016 consisted of for her before she finally learned that nothing lasts in the Olympic Village. It's a case of getting your fill and then moving on with the knowledge that you'll never see the person again. 

It does make Oksana think. Why does she keep seeing Eve? Sure, they're friends but they are clearly both sexually attracted and (Oksana hopes) romantically attracted to each other. There's literally no way in hell of this working out, with only seven days remaining until they both fly home to London and Moscow respectively. So why the fuck are they still making an effort to see each other? It's like a vacation romance, good while it lasts but painful when it inevitably ends. Both parties know it's going to end and they're going for it anyway. Oksana briefly thinks that maybe she should cut it off with Eve. Then she realises she's being ridiculous. If she only has seven days left with the most perfect woman she has ever met in her life, she's going to make them worth it. 

Checking the time, she sees it's 12:25pm. Eve has just over a half hour left of training, so she decides to go pick up lunch for the two of them and bring it to wherever Eve is training. She'll worry about finding the location of that later. Oksana knows how much Eve hates waiting in the queues in the cafeteria, grumbling the whole time about how her stomach is trying to eat at every last fat source she has. Oksana just bullies her for being dramatic and tells her to be more patient. At least Oksana can wait in the line for Eve today, mentally checking that off as today's romantic deed. 

After grabbing two caprese salads in to-go boxes with extra vinegar sachets for Eve, Oksana begins to heard towards the aquatic training blocks. What she doesn't expect to see while walking past the windows in the gymnastics blocks, is Eve's unmistakeable brown curls bouncing as she...jumps on a trampoline? The gym Eve is currently training in gets used by the Team USA gymnasts to practise their routines. With the style between different countries varying so much in gymnastics, rival teams are not allowed to see each other training incase skills are stolen or replicated in any way. The only time teams are allowed to see other countries perform is during the Games themselves. This makes for plenty of empty gymnastics halls in the Village that can be used within reason by the other sports, under supervision from their coaches. 

Oksana watches through the window as Eve somersaults and twists beautifully on the trampoline, listening as her coach shouts numbers at her. "103B! Good job! Now 305C! Perfect!" Oksana has no idea what the codes mean, but her coach is smiling and Eve herself looks happy with her own performance, eventually stepping down off the trampoline and high fiving her teammates. One boy pulls her in for a hug, placing his hand a little too close to Eve's ass for Oksana's liking, causing pangs of jealousy to ripple through her. She doesn't know why. This 'relationship' is doomed and they don't owe each other any loyalties. But Oksana really likes Eve and Eve really likes Oksana. It's all just a bit muddled in her head. 

Oksana knocks at the windowpane of the gym, waving to get Eve's attention. One of her teammates catches Oksana's eye and alerts Eve of her presence. She turns around and instantly beams when she sees Oksana standing there, rushing over to open the door and let her in. 

"How did you know I'd be here?" Eve asks with a smile, pulling Oksana in for a hug while her teammates go back to practising. 

"Why were you on a trampoline?" Oksana giggles, embracing Eve before quickly pulling back. "Ew, you're all sweaty."

"Trampolining helps with my coordination and balance. It's also nice to practise my dives on dry land without the burden of having to get in and out of the water every time," Eve explains before rolling her eyes at Oksana's sweat comment. "And your hands are all chalky but you don't see me complaining. Just be grateful I'm not cuddling you drenched and smelling like pool water."

"I brought us lunch, I thought we could eat outside today for a change." Oksana offers, holding out the styrofoam box and plastic fork and knife to Eve, which she grabs more than happily. 

"God, you're a real life angel, thank you. All I've thought about for the last hour is food, I'm starving."

Oksana makes a comment about how Eve is always starving before Eve turns back to where her team and coach are standing as they talk through the proper form for a tuck somersault. Oksana recognises her coach's face from when he was yelling at her on the first day of training. She decides she doesn't like him very much. 

"Hey, do you mind if I finish up a little early today, Bill?" Eve asks, reading the clock on the wall that shows she technically still has fifteen minutes left of training. "My friend brought me food and I think I'm going to die if I don't eat right this second." 

"Of course, Eve, I'll see you tomorrow. Great work today, you were perfect. I want the exact same effort tomorrow, alright? I've been so impressed with your performance lately. Keep it up." Bill tells her, patting her on the back. Eve waves goodbye to her teammates and heads out the door with Oksana. 

"Good job. Your coach seemed really happy with you," Oksana smiles. "It makes a change from last time I saw him when he was shouting at you for letting him down."

"That really upset you, huh? Watching him yell at me? I'm thirty two years old, I don't really care that much. I can handle someone yelling at me.”

"It upset me because for twelve years my ex coach did nothing but scream at me. I didn't realise coaches aren't supposed to do that. The first time I spoke to you I wanted to make sure you knew that too." she explains, then quickly changes the topic to something else. Eve knows about her ex coach from reading her Wikipedia page, but she doesn't press Oksana any further, knowing that if she wanted to talk about it more, she would. 

The girls find a picnic bench in the Olympic Park to eat their salad on, surrounded by literally hundreds of athletes, of all nationalities, doing workouts, playing games and racing each other on the green. Oksana takes a moment to take it all in. All these people coming together, united only in athletic excellence, to represent their countries and make them proud. Under no other circumstance would you find a group of Nigerians, Malaysians and Nicaraguans playing a game of softball together despite the language barriers. Fifty feet away, a group of Samoans are teaching a group of Danes a dance from their culture. Oksana herself is a girl born and raised in Russia falling head over heels for a girl born and raised in America. No other circumstance would bring the two together like this. Sometimes Oksana doubts herself, thinks about throwing the towel in altogether and quitting to start a new life away from gym and sports completely. Moments like this remind her that, while retirement is still very much on the cards in the near future, it's worth staying that little while longer to see what happens next. If Oksana hadn't agreed to come to Tokyo 2020 (which she almost didn't) she wouldn't be sitting right here with Eve right now, among this cultural melting pot of glee and exuberant pride. It gives Oksana an idea though, and she decides to present it to Eve. 

"We’re in Japan, right? And we have been for the last nine days?" 

"Yes?" Eve responds, unsure where Oksana is going with this. 

"Well, have you ever really felt like you were in Japan?"

Eve shakes her head and shrugs. "Nope. But I felt the same way in Brazil. I went there expecting to see some crazy rainforests and Christ the Redeemer and beautiful beaches and mountains. In reality, all you see during the Games is the Village which is the most multicultural place on Earth. Kinda makes you forget that you're even in the country you're in."

"Exactly!" Oksana replies, raising her eyebrows at Eve hoping she catches her drift. 

"What? Why are you so excited?" Eve giggles. 

"I was thinking we could leave the Village today. Just blow off the rest of training. Don't you want to see Tokyo? We can go see the Tower and the Skytree. Go shopping in Shibuya, see the crossing. Visit a temple. Come on it'll be fun!"

Technically, athletes are well within their rights to leave the Village whenever they want, as long as they come back at a reasonable time (ie. not 4am) and aren't missing any of their specialist event training. It's pretty unusual for athletes to leave and go sightseeing however, with most too focused on their upcoming event to think about anything else. The Tokyo Village is conveniently placed just a half hour walk from the main shopping districts of Japan, and with the sun beating down on them, it's a gorgeous day to explore. 

"Wow, yes. Okay. Yes!" Eve replies, each word coming out more excited than the last. "Let's go see Tokyo!"

Oksana is into souvenirs. Like really into souvenirs. It's one of the first thing Eve finds out when they go shopping, begrudgingly entering every tacky tourist-orientated store that Oksana drags her into. ("Isn't he cute?" Oksana coos, holding a little Pikachu teddy bear with I Heart Tokyo hand-stitched sloppily on his stomach.) Eve is forced against her will to buy matching friendship bracelets for her and Oksana with I Heart Tokyo written in beads. ("See, we can wear these bracelets whenever we're apart and still feel close to each other!") 

Eve is just down to do whatever makes Oksana happy. It's clear she needed this, to clear her head and have fun away from gym. From what she has pieced together about Oksana, training is her whole life. She was stripped of having any semblance of a social life in her formative years, leaving her sometimes incapable of developing any meaningful relationships with the people around her. Even her teammates don't have a particularly close connection with her. Her life back home in Russia seems extremely isolated. It's just her and her cat against the world. Eve really does feel blessed to be one of the few people Oksana trusts and has opened up to and she dreads to think about how lonely she will be once again when the Games end and Eve is gone. 

It's lingering in the back of Eve's mind as Oksana excitedly drags her around Harajuku, that they have yet to talk about what happened last night. They made out for hours and had passionate, beautiful sex and they haven't talked about it. Like at all. Haven't even alluded to it. 

While one night stands in the Village are completely normal and expected, they're one night stands. Between strangers. It's abnormal to hookup with a friend here. It's especially abnormal to meet up with said friend the day after, bring them lunch, take them on a picnic date and then tour them around the Land of the Rising Sun. Eve normally doesn't care about being ghosted by her hookups, coming to expect it come her fourth Games. It's not that she doesn't want Oksana to keep in contact, she just wonders why she does. And Eve herself wonders why she keeps in contact. The thought of stopping it makes Eve sick to her stomach. So what does that make them? Friends with benefits? Fuck buddies? Olympic girlfriends? Friends who simply made a mistake that won't happen again?

They're in a cat café in Udagawacho when Eve vocalises her racing thoughts. They’re surrounded by all cat everything. Pictures of cats on the walls, stitched into the chairs, sitting at a cat head shaped table. Even the salt and pepper shakers are little cats. Oksana is in her element, surrounded by four felines all begging for her attention. ("Look, Eve, they love me. I am a cat whisperer.") The last thing Eve wants to do is scare her off or make it seem like she's ashamed. Tentatively, she places her hand over Oksana's which rests on the table as they wait for their sushi to arrive. 

"Last night. I think we need to talk about it." Eve blurts out. Oksana doesn't look up from the cat she's petting, her smile faltering a bit. 

"Is this when you tell me you regretted it and just want to be friends?" Oksana asks shyly, still petting the little cat at her lap, avoiding eye contact at all costs. Oksana’s eyes drift to the I Love Tokyo bracelet on her wrist that matches the one on Eve’s. Her cheeks flush a little as she remembers just how vulnerable she let herself be last night. 

"No. No of course not. I don't regret it at all I just- What does this make us?" Eve asks, noting the shift in Oksana's demeanour, going from excitable and bubbly to quiet and anxious. Part of her wishes she had never even brought it up. 

"Well, I don't know. We only have seven days left. It's not much time to really think about that stuff. If it weren't for the long distance I'd try to make you my girlfriend," Oksana admits, finally looking up at Eve and giving her a little shrug. "But we met under shit circumstances and have been doomed from the start. So there's no point trying to make any sense of it."

Eve can tell Oksana is angry and deflated. Not at her, but at the situation. At the circumstances they met under. At the distance between them. At the practicalities that seem impossible. It has only been nine days. Both parties feel absolutely ridiculous for getting so involved so quickly but it's done and there's nothing either of them can do to halt it. 

"Do you...still want to do that? Like the kissing and sex stuff?"

Oksana nods. "Of course. I'd literally sit with you for hours just watching paint dry. I like you more than I've ever liked anyone in my life. But if you want to stop that stuff then we can stop. I'll never ever pressure you, just tell me and we'll stop."

Eve purses her lips, tilting her head back slightly, staring up at the café ceiling. (Even the ceiling has little cartoon cats on it.) She knows they should stop. Just leave it as a one-time thing and forget about it. It's going to hurt so much more when they have to leave each other if they continue going like this. Every rational part of her brain is telling her to run far away before she gets anymore emotionally attached. Her lips defy her brain though as she tells Oksana, "come over here." Oksana scoots over somewhat nervously to Eve's side of the booth, clumsily squeezing past sleeping cats and coming to sit next to Eve. 

And before either of them have time to register what they're doing, they're kissing. In public. In the middle of a fucking cat café. In Tokyo. Pre-Oksana Eve would literally try to mop the ocean before ever taking part in gross PDA that no single bystander wants to see. But this is Post-Oksana Eve. And all bets are off. She should be fucking mortified but all she can think about is Oksana's lips and Oksana's tongue and Oksana's hand tugging in her hair and Oksana Oksana Oksana. 

They pull away when someone clears their throat at the edge of the table. Looking up, they see the waiter standing with their sushi, smiling at them. 

"Let me guess..." the waiter begins to say, looking between the two of them, pointing at them both, trying to remember the correct words in English. "Just married?"

If Eve wasn't humiliated enough knowing that the poor waiter had to see that, Oksana's reply made it ten times worse. Or maybe better. She couldn't tell. 

"Yes! We recently got married. We are here in Tokyo on our honeymoon." Oksana smiles warmly at the man, placing her hand on top of Eve's, stroking with her thumb. Such a little shit. 

"Congratulations. Good fortune to you both. I hope you enjoy your time in Tokyo, also."

Oksana thanks the man in Japanese, having practised her Japanese pleasantries before arriving in Tokyo and then turns back to Eve who's rolling her eyes playfully. 

"So we're married now, huh?"

"He believed me! And he wished us a good fortune. When we both win Gold we can thank the random waiter man," Oksana squeaks, returning back to her previous peppy manner. "Just so we're clear... that kiss meant that you still want to like... kiss and stuff. Right?"

Eve giggles a little at her question. "Of course I do. I'd kiss you all day long if I could."

"And stuff?" Oksana asks a little quieter, tone high and playful, eyes practically sparkling. She is seriously the cutest person Eve has ever laid eyes on in her life. She for sure owes someone for this. Having this little cherub all to herself. 

"And stuff." Eve affirms with a little nod. 

They're once again cuddled up in Oksana's bed at night, having spent all afternoon and evening exploring parts of Tokyo. They started off by finding the Senso-ji Temple, taking cute couple-esque selfies outside and asking another tourist to take a standing picture of them (both girls have since made that picture their lockscreen). They really do look great together as a couple- both short and muscular in stature while their features are the direct polar opposite of each other’s. When they take selfies, no one has to reach up or bend down to get the other in shot. (Eve can’t help but relate it to living with Oksana- even though she knows it’s impossible and impractical and never going to happen. If anyone needs something from the top shelf, neither of them are apt for the job. If someone needs to open a jammed pickle jar, however, there’ll be a fight between them about who gets to do the honours.)

Next, they headed to the shopping districts where Oksana encouraged Eve to buy every single item of clothing she thought looked good on her. ("If you don't buy it yourself, I'm buying it for you.") Oksana’s own fashion taste is very varied, Eve learns. She picks out all sorts of garments for herself- both masculine and feminine. She’s intrigued to know what her wardrobe back home looks like, seeing as she can evidently pull off anything and make it look haute couture.

Finally, after hours of shopping for clothes and trinkets and weird Japanese snacks (Oksana insisted that they had to buy the chocolate covered Cheetos or she would literally die), they headed to Shibakoen to head up the Tokyo Tower as the sun began to set. Oksana was utterly taken by the views of Tokyo from above, and truly, they were beautiful, but Eve was more focused on how beautiful her girl looked and how she doesn’t want any of this to end. Naturally, they managed to sneak in plenty of kisses on the observation deck, ranging from quick little pecks to full on tongue kisses- and everything in between. The wind is super cold when you’re 250m above ground, so they had to cuddle up real close to keep each other warm. Oksana pointed out skyscrapers and airplanes with one hand, and with her other hand she held Eve’s, stroking softly with her thumb. 

Oksana has easily seen upwards of forty cities during her gymnastics career. From London to Antwerp to Doha to Nanning to Rio. She never really understood the hype about travelling, seeing it as merely an inconvenience. However, today she had someone to share it with, having fun and making memories together. She supposes this is what travelling is supposed to be like, she just hasn't had anyone to experience it with her in the past. She hopes and prays to some almighty God that she might get the opportunity to explore another city with Eve someday. 

Oksana absentmindedly strokes at Eve's hair. She's laying on her back while Eve lies on top of her on her front, head resting on Oksana's tummy, arms wrapped round her body. They're content to just sit in silence enjoying one another's company. Aladdin plays as background noise on TV but neither are particularly interested in paying attention to it. 

"I had the best day today. It's nice to get out and focus on something other than competing, huh?" Eve hummed, breaking up the comfortable silence they had been laying in previously. 

"Mm." is all Oksana can reply, lost in her own thoughts. She can't shake the feeling that this, whatever this is, is not going to last much longer. Under any other circumstance, this wouldn't be such a bittersweet moment. They just had the most perfect day together in Tokyo, smiling and laughing the entire time, learning more about one another. But this relationship has an expiry date and it's drawing nearer by the minute.

"Could you imagine if we did the same sport," Oksana starts, her hand in Eve's curls moving up slightly to massage her scalp instead. "we would see each other every few months at competitions. We could sightsee a new city every year during Championships. We could train together and teach each other what we learned while we were apart. It'd be better than this. I'd actually have a chance to see you again."

Eve just sighs and looks up at her girl. "There's no point dwelling on what might've been, Oksana. Just embrace the fact that we're here together right now. We can worry about what comes next later."

"I just want you to know that I don't do this. I've never been on dates or done anything romantic before. I haven't ever wanted to. This, whatever this is, is so new to me and I don't really know what to do with the feelings I have for you. It's all so new. This is probably just another short fling for you and I'm fine with that. I just want you to know it feels deeper than that to me. I feel like my whole life has prepared me for you," Oksana admits, her tone remaining low and pessimistic. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that you make me really fucking happy."

"I feel exactly the same," Eve assures. "I was engaged to my ex-fiancée for six years and I never felt this way about her. Not even in the very beginning. It's as if the universe wanted us to find eachother. We have something special, but we can decide what to do about it later. We're wasting the time that we have worrying that we're running out of time. Let's just pretend like we have forever, okay?"

With that, Eve props herself up on her elbows and scooches up so she can kiss her girl again, something that knocks her breath out every time just as it did the first time. They start off slow and passionate, taking their time and savouring every single second. Oksana's tummy is positively doing backflips and she wonders if Eve can sense it. It's like a fire pit is burning up her insides, making her gasp for breath and silently beg for more. Eve tries to pulls away for a short breath, but Oksana's lips follow desperately, physically unable to stop kissing her. This is all she needs. All the stress and expectations and high standards that burden her in everyday life just melt away when Eve has her like this. Her mind completely fogs up, unable to think about anything else but the gorgeous woman on top of her. As their tempo picks up, Oksana's hands have a mind of their own and she's whining as she tugs Eve's shirt up and over her head. 

"You're so impatient." Eve laughs as she reaches down and removes Oksana's shirt in one swift movement. She reaches down to unbutton Oksana's pants, pulling them down with a little help from the other girl. 

Their kisses are desperate now, with teeth clashing, tongues rubbing together and pulses through the roof. Eve's hands make quick work of Oksana's sports bra, tearing it off and revealing her perfect perky tits. She seriously can't get enough of Oksana's entire body, feeling like she's six feet under, seeing it in a post-death premonition. The angelic pale skin is decorated with the occasional freckle or birthmark, strong muscly upper arms reminding Eve that Oksana could probably overpower her at any second, thighs that Eve swears are 100% muscle. She has a spattering of fading bruises all over her hips and knees, some bigger and darker than others which Eve figures are acquired from practice. She often experiences bruising and trauma herself, mainly when she doesn't keep her body streamlined enough and smacks her body off the water. It's just an unwritten rule that when sleeping with an athlete, you're going to see some cringeworthy injuries and sports-related imperfections. You just have to either embrace them or pretend they aren't there. 

They're both sitting up now, mouths still connected and clinging together for dear life. Eve quickly learned that when Oksana is really turned on, she physically can't stop herself from writhing and grinding against something. Be it the bed, the air, a hand or a mouth. She's as impatient and as needy as they come. Eve finds it totally endearing, feeling Oksana humping the bedsheets while they kiss, eventually deciding to grab the girl's ass and spank her lightly, eliciting a groan from Oksana. Eve is still painfully overdressed in contrast to her girl who is left only wearing black lace panties. She stands up quickly and completely strips off, motioning for Oksana to take off her underwear too. 

When Eve returns to the bed, they're both naked, restless hands running round every inch of each others bodies. Oksana's hand reaches down to find Eve's clit, rubbing it frantically as they continue to kiss with a now practised ease. Eve is already soaked, the knowledge of what's about to go down causing blood to rush to her core in preparation. After all, she had the best sex of her entire life in this bed with this girl last night, she's bound to be flooding with anticipation. She knows she's not alone in her arousal when she reaches down to Oksana's pussy, fingers instantly soaked from the first touch. They're like animals, every other thought and purpose and responsibility is thrown out the window when they're in this head space. All that matters is making the other feel good. 

"Go lie on your back." Eve commands after a couple minutes of mindless touching and feeling. Oksana huffs at the loss of contact when Eve's hand pulls away but she obliges anyway, Eve calling her a good girl as she does. 

"Want to taste you." Oksana whines as Eve takes too long to decide what her next move is going to be. This gives Eve a better idea than the one she had already had. 

Eve crawls above Oksana so that they're facing the opposite direction in a 69 position, the younger girl eagerly craning her neck up to reach Eve's pussy before Eve has even positioned herself properly. Eve makes yet another comment about how needy she is and how good she is before connecting her tongue to her clit for the very first time. 

Oksana conked out before Eve got the chance to eat her out last night and it's something she's been keyed up about ever since. The moment she connects her tongue with Oksana's clit, she can feel the girl's thighs twitch as they spread impossibly wider than they already are. (Then Eve remembers she's a gymnast and could effortlessly spread them 180° if she wanted to. Maybe they'll take advantage of Oksana's flexibility some other day. It's bound to make for some interesting and unique sex positions. She'll hold that thought for another time, though.) Both girls' heads are foggy as they eat each other out simultaneously, trying hard to focus on pleasuring the other while receiving it at the same time. 

It's not Eve's favourite position by any means. She can't play with Oksana's hair or look into her eyes or even get a good angle on her clit. It feels very juvenile, sloppy and borderline uncomfortable, but for now all they want is to taste each other and this position allows them to do so without the burden of taking turns. 

Oksana really has the upper hand here as she lays on the bottom with full uninterrupted access to Eve's pussy above her. She's licking steadily from Eve's clit to hole, going back and forth between sucking and licking at her clit with a relaxed tongue and tongue-fucking her with a pointed tongue. Eve is a fucking mess above her, moaning against Oksana's clit, causing vibrations to ripple through her body. Just as Eve is beginning to rock her hips in time with Oksana's tongue, Oksana pushes two fingers steadily into her, working them in and out as her tongue continues it's motions. Eve is done for. Unable to continue eating the younger girl out, she sits up, riding her face from behind while rubbing Oksana's clit with two fingers, throwing her head back with her own pleasure. Oksana doesn't mind of course, only wishing she could see how wrecked Eve was for her right now. 

"Eve. Eve," Oksana pants from beneath her, tapping her thigh to get her attention. Eve stops riding her face immediately, worried that she's hurting the other girl or blocking her airways or something. "Will you turn round for me? I want to see you properly."

Eve smiles and obliges, spinning round and repositioning herself above Oksana's face once again, however this time they can see each other's faces, Eve can play with Oksana's hair, Oksana can watch Eve's small breasts bouncing as she rides her face. It suits them both better. Eve cautiously lowers down onto Oksana's mouth after carefully making sure the other girl is still comfortable. ("Is this okay?" "Yes.") ("Am I hurting you?" "No.") ("Can you breathe?" "Yes, shut up and sit down.")

From this angle, Oksana can run both hands along the expanses of Eve's muscly, powerful thighs. Once again she's struck with the thought that Eve could crush her right now. She's all around her and above her and in her mouth and pulling her hair and everything is revolving around her and it makes her feel dizzy. Eve could so easily reposition herself and suffocate Oksana and Oksana wouldn't even bring herself to care. She could die like this and die a happy woman. Eve is grinding down expertly on her tongue, using it to get off in just the way she needs, pulling Oksana's hair with one hand and stroking her face with the other. It's all so much for Oksana and she isn't even getting touched anymore but she still feels equally as pleasured as she did with Eve's tongue on her. 

"I'm almost there, you're doing so so well," Eve pants from above her, picking up the speed of her hips. "So good, baby."

Oksana's body doesn't even feel like her own anymore. Eve is just using it for her own pleasure, taking what she needs and bringing herself closer and closer to the edge. She's completely fine with this. Perhaps her purpose in life was to meet Eve and protect her and look after her and service her in any way she wants and who is she to deny her purpose? Eve's thighs are twitching against Oksana's cheeks, hands pulling at her blonde hair even harder now. The moans Eve is letting out are more like shouts and it's a telltale sign that she's about to come. 

"Fuck!" is all Eve can shout as she reaches her climax, leaning forward to grab onto the headboard of Oksana's bed to stabilise herself. Oksana continues to work her through her orgasm, enjoying the impossible influx of wetness coating her tongue and face and chin that's just so distinctly Eve. The sight of Eve falling apart above her is the sexiest thing she's ever seen and she begins bucking her own hips up into the air at the sight. Oksana genuinely feels braindead, too turned on to think about anything at all except Eve's pussy and hair and face and hands. Her mind is completely foggy as she cleans Eve up with her tongue, fully ready to submit to anything Eve wanted to do with her now. (Eve could probably bring a chainsaw out of her bag and cut her into tiny pieces and she wouldn't attempt to stop her.)

Finally coming down from her high, Eve loosens the grip on Oksana's hair and lifts up off of her face, immediately leaning down to connect their lips. Oksana's entire mouth, cheek and chin area is coated with Eve's wetness and cum and Eve can taste herself on her tongue and lips and everywhere. They make out for a couple more minutes before Oksana begins bucking her hips up against Eve's thigh, causing it to get slicked up from her wetness.

Eve flips them around so that Oksana is on top, allowing her to ride Eve's thigh properly while they resume their passionate kissing. The younger girl begins moaning loudly at the pressure against her clit, rubbing it harder against the smooth skin of Eve's rock hard thigh. She looks absolutely wrecked, eyes glazed over, lips swollen, chin still glistening with Eve's wetness and she's being so desperate and needy. Making herself feel so good for Eve's eyes only. Eve swears she sees Oksana drooling a little, but she could be imagining it. 

"Can you... can you go again?" Oksana manages to let out in between whimpers. Her movements slow a little as she waits for Eve's answer. 

"Yes baby, but we're focusing on you right now, don't worry about me." Eve replies, stroking her blonde hair soothingly, willing her to pick up her speed again. She doesn't. 

Instead, she repositions herself a little, moving up from Eve's thigh and instead sitting herself down on top of Eve's pussy. She bends Eve's right leg a little so that it's out of the way and she can begin comfortably thrusting their pussies together. 

Eve has never done this successfully before. She has had a plethora of long-term girlfriends and even a fiancée in the past, but none of them could ever get this position to work out for both of them. It's not for everyone. Eve had actually concluded it's just some bullshit position marketed towards straight guys with a lesbian porn fetish. Yet here is Oksana, expertly grinding her pussy down so that their clits both rub together perfectly with every movement. Eve has never felt anything like it. It's so intimate and new and different. She feels more connected to Oksana like this than she ever has so far. 

Oksana's head is thrown back in pleasure, orgasm rapidly approaching already. When Eve begins thrusting her hips up to meet Oksana's, they're both done for. It's so intense and carnal and sensual and they never ever want to stop. Eve has Oksana's breasts in her hands, playing with her sensitive nipples and intensifying her pleasure so much more. 

"Are you close, baby?" Eve breathes out softly after a few minutes of them grinding together. She knows just how sensitive Oksana's clit is and the way it's being deliciously rubbed by Eve's on every thrust has her so worked up, unable to even speak. Oksana manages to nod before throwing her head back again and thrusting her hips down faster. "Come for me, baby, I'm right behind you. You're doing such a good job."

With that, Oksana is pushed over the edge for the first time that night. Her pussy clenches and unclenches rapidly as she rides out her orgasm, the motions pushing Eve over the edge once again and they're coming at the same time. They're so sweaty and blissed out as they ride the wave, only able to buck up against each other. They attempt to kiss each other, but end up just panting and moaning into each other's mouths, both bodies frozen from the simultaneous pleasure they just experienced. 

They lay in silence next to each other for upwards of ten minutes, catching their breaths and clearing their minds. It's only the second time they've had sex, but they both figure that if it's going to be like this every time, they're never going to stop. 

"We really should shower, we're all gross and sweaty," Oksana tells Eve, breaking the silence. "Did you bring stuff with you to stay over tonight?"

Eve nods, pointing at her duffel bag she packed earlier with her toiletries, towel, clothes for tomorrow and pyjamas (even though she knows they'll most likely end up sleeping naked.)

"The Team Russia showers are actually pretty good this year. I heard the Scandinavians don't have any hot water in theirs, they've been coming up to use ours. Maybe you'll find our showers better than GB's?"

There's always drama every year over which countries get the best facilities. It's never on purpose, of course, some buildings just get lucky. In Rio, half the Village only had single beds due to budget cuts half way through decorating while the other half got doubles. Some shower blocks during London 2012 had no running water at all, requiring athletes to find somewhere else to bathe. It's normal for athletes to discuss this stuff amongst themselves, taking advantage of international friends' better facilities whenever they can. If the Russians have better showers that the Brits, you can bet Eve is showering in the Russian block every day of the week. 

"I'll go first. I'll only be a couple minutes, alright?" Eve says, standing up and putting on her Tokyo 2020 robe from her bag, grabbing her towel and toiletry bag. 

"Hey, wait, I'll come with you. We can shower together." Oksana replies, sitting up with a pout and similarly pulling down her Tokyo 2020 robe from where it hangs on the wall. 

"We are not fucking in a communal shower block. That is where I draw the line."

Oksana just giggles at her, playfully rolling her eyes. "I didn't say that. I just think it could be nice. It's what real couples do, right? Plus, I just want to spend as much time with you as I can, I'd rather sit here all gross and dirty than be away from you."

Eve would be lying if the use of the world 'couple' didn't make her heart fall to her ass. They already feel like a real couple. In normal circumstances they could be a real couple. But these aren't normal circumstances and they're not a real couple. 

"Okay, come on then. I'm not cuddling you again until we're both clean. And I mean it about the shower sex. It's not happening."

Oksana's heart swoons as Eve indirectly agrees to shower with her. She's seen it in romantic movies and figures it's what couples do, washing each other's hair and tenderly running their hands over each other's bodies. Kissing under the spray of water like they're kissing in the rain, drawing love hearts on the steamed up glass. No holds barred, intimate like nothing else, as they're completely open with their partner. 

Oksana quickly learns however, that showering with someone is nothing like the movies make it out to be. First of all, there's barely any room for one person in those cubicles, let alone two. One is always directly under the spray of water while the other stands almost completely outside of it, freezing their ass off and begging the other to hurry up. Second of all, the water pressure in the Olympic Village sucks. No matter how 'good' the Russian showers are, they're still basic as fuck. It takes a comically long time to wash the shampoo out of their hair, causing the other to curse at how long they're taking. Third of all, Eve is a pussy when it comes to water temperature. Oksana likes the hot water turned all the way up, turning her skin bright red and easing all her eternally tense muscles. Eve can't handle the hot water being even half way up, making Oksana chitter even though it realistically isn't that cold. They have their first 'couple' argument over this. ("Aren't you from Russia? You're suppose to be adapted to the cold." "I'm not a fucking masochist, Eve. Are you trying to freeze me?") Fourthly, Oksana does almost her entire skincare routine in the shower. This is a fifteen minute process. Eve has to stand there in the corner, waiting her turn, while Oksana puts all sorts of lotions and potions all over her face. ("You don't get skin like this from one face wash." Oksana explains matter of factly when Eve questions her on the amount of products she insists on using.) 

They both come to the conclusion that even if they fall truly, madly, deeply in love and get married and have four kids and live happily together in their own little home, they will never ever shower together again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while researching this chap i discovered theres a whole stan twitter fully dedicated to russian gymnasts and i jus know theyd all stan oksana so hard she’d be in their icons (one of the most well known gymnasts in real life is called oksana and whenever i see gym stans tweeting about her it completely makes sense with my fantasy)
> 
> also the official playlist for this is the world cup songs. because those songs go hard. and arent cringe like the olympics songs. and i am not taking criticism on this. 
> 
> as always thank you so much for all the nice feedback!!! i’m not good at finding the right words but i really am so so grateful for all of them🥺
> 
> twitter: @astankovas_


	4. pussywhipped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW

It has been three days since the girls explored Tokyo together. The days since then have blended into one, with intense sport training in the mornings, cardio training together in the afternoons and kisses and cuddles and mind-blowing sex at night. The stress of the competition has been really getting to Eve recently, and Oksana vows to take her mind off it whenever she can. 

On Monday, the girls hit the gym together. This consisted of Oksana trying to impress Eve the entire time. Firstly, she tried to show off on a treadmill, turning the speed up as high as it goes and then subsequently falling off, attracting the attention of tons of gymgoers as she lay on the ground with a new friction burn on her knee. Then, she attempted to use Eve as a human barbell, forgetting that Eve, although tiny, is pretty much 100% muscle, and muscle is heavy as fuck. She ended up dropping her onto a crash mat and then falling on top of her after lifting with terrible form. ("I really can't take you anywhere." Eve mused as Oksana lay beside her in fits of giggles.)

On Tuesday, they treated themselves to their first McDonald's since arriving in the Village. Eve told Oksana all the stories she had from working in McDonald's as a teen, from spilling sundae mix all over her boss to having to clean up a customer's pee from the top of a table (she didn't want to know who's pee it was or how it got there.) Oksana tells Eve about the first McDonald's that opened in the USSR, serving tens of thousands of customers in it's first day who were all paying ridiculous amounts of money to try the elusive capitalist food that originated from beyond the Iron Curtain. For the first time, citizens of the USSR could see firsthand what capitalism might look like so, albeit indirectly, Big Macs contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. Between them, they ordered half the menu, deciding that if they were having a cheat day, they were going all out and eating it all. This ultimately resulted in the girls going into a food coma and napping the whole afternoon away in each other's arms.

Now though, it's Wednesday. For both girls, this means the day of preliminaries. To Oksana, it's nothing to worry about. Never in her life has she failed a preliminary or qualifier of any kind. Frankly, she finds them boring as shit. It's just a way for the poor gymnasts to be filtered out, leaving only the powerhouses. Oksana at age eleven had better skills and technique than the majority of the Olympic prelim gymnasts, so she's pretty confident in her twenty year old self's abilities. 

Russia, Romania, USA and China are pretty much always guaranteed a place in team finals, consistently being the best gymnastics nations in every Games. Eight national teams are chosen to compete in the team finals, twenty-four individual gymnasts to compete in the all-round finals and eight gymnasts for each of the four apparatus finals. Oksana knows straight off the bat that she has bars and floor in the bag, she will for sure be performing them in finals. If her beam routine goes well, she will also have the all-round in the bag. Widely regarded as the best gymnast in the competition, she really doesn't have much to worry about. When other gymnasts see that they're competing against Oksana, it immediately changes their mindset. They're no longer going for Gold, they're going for Silver. Oksana's performance in Rio 2016 was great for a sixteen year old, but wasn't perfect, having only won two Golds, a Silver and a Bronze. To anyone else, that would be a once in a lifetime achievement, but in Oksana's mind it means that three gymnasts in total were better than her. She isn't going to let that happen this year. After all, if it's her last Games before retirement, she has to go out with a bang. 

Gymnastics preliminaries officially begin at 12pm. It is currently 10am and Oksana is laying on a table in the medic's room getting her freshly busted ankle bandaged up. 

They say when a gymnast asks to see a medic, they're probably dying. Pain and suffering is so ingrained into the sport that it becomes so natural after a while, becoming worryingly easy to ignore. At 9:30am, Oksana attempted her full-twisting double tuck dismount on bars (that she has performed perfectly literally hundreds of times) when she landed awkwardly on her ankle and audibly cracked it. Used to the nature of the sport, she managed to stay upright and smile through it, pretending like nothing happened. Konstantin who stood under the bars was the one who noticed and insisted she see the medic, with the knowledge that she had previously ignored a fully broken wrist for weeks. He knows that she takes the 'feel no pain' sentiment overly seriously. She begs Konstantin to let her continue practicing, insisting that she's fine and it was nothing, but he sends her to be examined anyway. 

"I'm still able to compete right?" Oksana asks Team Russia's medic, who's looking at an x-ray of her ankle on his computer. The bone connecting her ankle to her lower leg has a visible crack in it. It’s really no big deal to her, she struggles to think of a bone she hasn’t fractured over the years and still managed to work through. There was a phase from thirteen to fifteen where she constantly had breaks and fractures, to the point that she couldn’t remember what her body felt like without them. 

He simply smiles at her and tells her in Russian, "I can't tell you not to compete. I know if I tell you not to, I'll still see you swinging on those bars come 12. But it's really important that you take it easy out-with your competitions. We can put padding in your bandage to protect it during your routines but I want you to rest as much as possible when you can. I will provide you with crutches for you to use whenever you can to prevent any further damage before the finals."

Oksana sighs, having done all this before. Pain genuinely doesn't bother her, she's used to it. She doesn't like being made to feel weak or fragile, like some little delicate butterfly whose wings could break at any time. She is a powerhouse in her sport and has worked her ass off to get there. Injuries are nothing new to her. She allows the doctor to pad and bandage up her foot, asking how it feels to stand on. ("Fine. I told you that already, if you listened to me in the first place you'd know that.") She finally gets the go-ahead to go back to training after wasting a precious thirty minutes with the medic, having to ridiculously hop herself to the gym on her crutches all for the sake of a minor injury. A little fibula fracture. She has previously got by on so many worse injuries and not been required to use crutches, but here she is now. When Eve sees her with these, she's going to fuss over her to no end. (Oksana tells herself she won't like that, but truthfully, any attention from Eve is wholly welcomed.) She just doesn't want Eve to worry about her or pity her. She pulls out her phone to text her and tell her what happened, just as a pre-warning. 

Oksana: hey, just letting you know that i hurt part of my ankle at training today. don't worry i'm still going to compete and still going to smash it. i have to use crutches when i'm not practicing or competing incase it gets worse so you're going to have to practice your speed-walking to keep up with me😊 

She figures that message will suffice, even though she knows Eve is going to eternally worry about her anyway and there's nothing she can say to change that. Hiding it would only make her exponentially more worried when she found out, randomly seeing her girl in crutches out of nowhere. She avoids using the term 'fracture' on purpose, toning it down to make it seem less serious. Eve's preliminaries are also today, taking place at 1pm and Oksana knows just how nervous she has been all last night and this morning. This tiny injury probably has the power to push Eve towards a nervous breakdown. Her phone lights up with a text from Eve around thirty seconds later. 

Eve: can i come see you before you go?

Oksana: of course, i'm training in hall 3 in the gymnastics block, just walk in when you get here

With that, Oksana hops herself into the gym on one foot and glares at Konstantin as he welcomes her back with his classic I-told-you-so grin. 

"So you got a crutches, huh?" he says with amusement. "You told me you didn't need a doctor. You clearly did."

"Shut up, they're only for prevention of further injury. I'm still competing and I'm still getting through to finals." she explains as she makes her way to the floor to practise her routine again. 

All her routines are cemented in her mind, body performing them like muscle memory. It really feels like autopilot at this point. She's never been so confident in her whole life than she is with these routines. Combining difficult skills with perfect execution so flawlessly, she knows she's going to wow the judging panel like she always does. She's even debuting a skill never before seen in a professional gymnastics routine - a triple double tumbling pass. Two flips and three full twists, all in one jump. If she can nail it in finals like she always does in practice she's easily on her way to Gold. 

Just as she's about to begin her floor routine, she sees Eve walk into the gym, adorning her classic Union Jack tracksuit. Oksana waves at her and motions her to come over. Every time she sees Eve it feels just like it did the first time. Amazement and awe. The butterflies she feels haven't subsided from the very first day they met, it's all still so exciting. Oksana seriously loves being around her and even just her presence is enough to light up her day. They could sit next to each other in silence for days on end and be so content with that. 

She tells Konstantin in Russian, "This is my friend. She just wants to see me before she heads to her own practice. Don't kick her out." This elicits an eye roll from the coach. He knows her like she’s his daughter. He knows exactly who is a friend and who is more than a friend without Oksana having to tell him. The knowing look he gives her says it all. 

Eve heads to where Oksana is standing, next to a huge spring floor surface. She wears her shiny red Team Russia leotard with hair gelled back neatly in a bun and makeup applied. (She has a little red ribbon wrapped around her bun and Eve swoons at the sight.) It's the first time Eve sees her wear any semblance of makeup in real life, normally choosing to just abandon it when not competing, but now she has her brows and lashes done and wears a matching red lip with her teammates. 

The younger girl looks so put-together considering her preliminaries start soon, a calm collectedness that Eve has never managed to master in twenty four years of diving. Even tiny National Championships have her on edge. Her failure in the semifinals at Beijing 2008 have permanently scarred her and made her terrified of failure. Her dives are always perfect and fluid and beautiful, but Beijing will always remain in the back of her mind: the bitterness she felt when packing up her room early, the disappointment she felt when calling her father, the regret she felt on the plane ride home. It feels all too recent despite being twelve years ago. Eve is a different person now, polished and elegant in her dives, she's no longer the twenty year old who qualified for Beijing by the skin of her teeth. She really worked her ass off and deserves to be here. She's capable of greatness no matter how easy it is for her to forget that. 

"What the fuck did you do?" she asks, bending down to poke at Oksana's bandage. 

"I fractured my fibula. I've done it before it's no big deal. I just landed funny, that's all," Oksana explains, trying to make it sound better than it actually is. "It's not a big deal, Eve."

"You never told me it's a fracture! Doesn't it hurt, baby?" she coos a little before stopping herself. Eve is well aware firsthand how annoying it is when people fuss over sports injuries. Athletes know exactly what their bodies can and can't take and if Oksana is happy to do her routines, Eve has no jurisdiction to change her mind or try to pity her. She can't help it though, hates seeing her baby in pain. Even the thought of her baby's injury getting any nastier kicks her overprotective instincts into overdrive. But this is Oksana's career and Oksana's competition and Oksana's decision, so as much as Eve wants to fret and make a fuss and wrap her up in blankets, she won't. Oksana is a grown woman. 

"It's seriously fine, Eve. I don't want you to worry about me today, okay? You have enough in your head without this. Once you've competed I'll let you look after me if you really want to but please don't let it distract you today," Oksana places a finger on Eve's chin, lifting it up so she can peck her on the lips. "We're both smashing our prelims today, okay? That's all that matters."

Eve wraps her arms round Oksana and gives her a big bear hug, neither girl wanting to let go of the other. If they were a real couple, this is the part that they'd exchange 'I love you's. But they're not a real couple. And they've only known each other for twelve days. (Somehow, Eve finds herself thinking that saying 'I love you' to Oksana wouldn't even feel weird right now, but objectively, it would be, so she refrains.) Oksana kisses the top of her head then breaks the hug, laughing as they realise the material of Eve's track pants is stuck to Oksana’s thighs. 

"Ew, why are your legs all sticky?" Eve asks in a semi-disguted tone. 

"We spray our legs and butt with this super sticky glue stuff before competing to stick our leotards to our skin. Saves us from wedgies. Also if our underwear shows, we get points deducted," she explains, giggling as Eve has to pull pretty hard to unstick herself. "Apparently my thighs just want you to stay forever. I don't blame them."

"I wish I could stay forever, too." Eve replies. They're talking hyperbolically about Eve staying to watch Oksana's preliminary of course, but Eve can't help but think about how she really does want to stay forever with Oksana. Whatever they're feeling now, Eve hopes by some miracle that it can continue forever. But it's four days until the Closing Ceremony. Four days left with Oksana. The more she thinks about it, the more she feels her heart being ripped out and shredded and stepped on and set on fire. 

"I'm about to practise my floor routine, do you wanna watch? You never saw this routine when you watched me last time."

Eve just nods meekly, ready to be mesmerised by whatever Oksana is about to show her. Truthfully, she'd rather they both were back in bed, cuddling and kissing and shooting the shit. She would love to know what it's like to spend her days with Oksana without the looming backdrop of professional sport surrounding them, suffocating them. She finds herself imagining what it would be like to live in a little quiet cottage somewhere with her girl, maybe in the south of France or something. They could spend their days gardening and baking and everything could be easy. Somewhere in a parallel universe, there's a version of them doing just that. Eve instinctively knows that when the sport ends, their relationship will end. She has recently found herself avoiding the live broadcasts, missing some of her favourite sports, just because they remind her that time running out. She stops checking the date in the morning, referring to everyday as simply 'Monday' or 'Wednesday'. Time, for all she cares, is just measured by when she's with Oksana and when she isn't. Trying to avoid the expiration date drawing closer just gets harder by the milisecond.

Oksana motions for her coach to click play on her music and Eve jumps a little as it blasts at full volume through the huge speakers of the gymnasium, ripping her from her somewhat depressing thoughts. It's some sort of upbeat compilation, taking elements from lots of different songs, switching songs as the routine progresses. Using floor music with lyrics is an instant point deduction so Oksana settles for instrumentals with strong percussion to punctuate her landings. There are occasional wolf whistles added to the music in the breaks between song changes, with Oksana either landing a tumbling pass or dropping to the ground in perfect timing with them. 

Eve watches in amazement as Oksana flips and twists through the air, reaching immense heights that allow her to fit in so many advanced skills into one leap. Her acrobatic tumbling is broken up by beautiful choreography, satisfying the dance elements required. Every movement blends together so perfectly, smooth as butter to produce a perfect Gold medal worthy floor routine. Oksana makes a ninety second routine feel like a five minute routine, incorporating so many skills and styles into one small time frame. 

Oksana finishes up with a jump into splits, landing perfectly in time with the ending beat of the music and her teammates cheer for her, high fiving her as she walks off the spring floor to where Eve stands. Eve's smile is the only one Oksana really cares to see, her heart melting at the sight as Eve pulls her in for a hug. 

"Amazing, baby. You've got this," Eve whispers in her ear. "I'm so proud of you."

"Aren't you gonna complain about me being sweaty?" Oksana giggles, still trying to catch her breath after the insane acrobatics she just performed. 

Eve just shakes her head and hugs her girl closer, nuzzling into her neck. "I wish I could watch you compete today, baby. You need to text me every time you're free and update me. I'll be in my own prelims thinking about you."

"Please focus on yourself, Eve. Promise you won't worry about me? The only time you should be thinking about me is when you think about how proud of you I'll be later." Oksana says, kissing Eves forehead again.

Oksana's coach makes his way over to where they are standing, his presence indirectly breaking up their hug, passing Oksana her duffel bag and saying something to her in Russian. He holds up two fingers, and Eve assumes it's time for her to leave. 

"The minivan is here, I have to go now," Oksana sighs, taking both of Eve's hands in hers and squeezing. "Promise you'll keep me updated the whole time I'm gone?"

"Promise," Eve smiles. "You're going to do amazing. Good luck, baby."

"Good luck to you, too," Oksana replies. "and remember whatever happens with your preliminaries, I'm proud of you endlessly. I'll miss you today."

Eve squeezes Oksana's hands from where they're still holding onto each other and leans in to connect their lips. The next time they kiss, they'll either be in the running for finals or they'll be getting ready to pack up their rooms. They'll either be crying tears of joy at their success or crying tears of sadness that they have to leave each other early. 

Right now though, they're kissing gently like it's only them in the room, despite Oksana's teammates buzzing around trying to find all their belongings last minute, cursing in Russian. Her coach is rounding everyone up, pointing animatedly at the clock on the wall and the minivan parked outside, rushing them out the door. ("Make sure you have your own tape, they won't provide it if you forget!") ("Bring extra Tuf-Skin as backup just incase you need it!") ("Someone left their water bottle by the speaker!") Oksana takes no notice to any of it, just focusing on the way her lips are moving in synch with Eve's like they're two halves of a whole. The competition is completely irrelevant to her in this moment. Any apprehensions she has melt away when she has Eve like this, overpowering her senses and clouding her brain. 

"Oksana! Didn't you hear me?" Konstantin's voice booms, becoming increasingly stressed now. He has trained these gymnasts every day for the last two years, watching them grow and flourish and become better than ever before. He managed to coax Oksana out of her shell and teach her to pace herself more than she used to, teaching her ways to respect what her body is capable of and working with that. It made her impossibly better as a gymnast. Now it's all coming down to the next few hours, where he will find out if any or all of his girls will make it to finals. "You left your water bottle by the speaker, grab it and tell your friend you need to go. We're all waiting on you."

"Okay, go," Eve giggles, giving Oksana a little push towards the door Konstantin is holding open. Eve has little smears of Oksana’s lipstick on her face. "Remember to use your crutches. I'll see you later, good luck!"

"Good luck!" Oksana repeats to Eve as she begins to walk (or moreso hop) away from her, smiling and waving over her shoulder. "You've got this!"

(When Eve is out of sight, Oksana finds herself running her fingers along the beads of her 'I Heart Tokyo' friendship bracelet hidden under her leotard sleeves, knowing that Eve is currently wearing the exact same one. She hopes that somehow, through some sort of psychokinesis, Eve can feel it.)

Gymnastics qualifiers are being held about ten minutes outside of the Village in a specialist gymnastics venue in Ariake. There are five subdivisions which are groups of four teams (either country teams like USA and Russia, or mixed teams for athletes from countries like Cuba and Ireland who don't have a full country team). There are four gymnasts per team. Each team starts on one apparatus (beam, floor, vault or bars) and rotate round once all gymnasts have performed. The 24 overall highest scorers are then selected for all-round finals and the 8 best performers on each apparatus are selected for the apparatus finals. 

All in all, it's a pretty boring competition, filtering out all the weak competitors (which is honestly the majority). Oksana spent most of her Rio 2016 qualifiers eye rolling at the majority of the other gymnasts, falling off of the balance beam, landing on their ass on their vault dismount, mind numbingly boring floor routines. Even her own teammates were underwhelming, with Russia being generally pretty poor at Artistic Gymnastics, instead excelling at Rhythmic Gymnastics. Oksana is pretty much the only exception to this rule, and with her teammates no where near her level, she carries the whole team on her shoulders. 

The minivan to the gymnastics venue is overly stuffy and cramped, with the gymnasts still sweaty from practicing just ten minutes earlier. Oksana nearly downs her entire water bottle before the driver even turns the engine on. 

"So, that girl. Is she your girlfriend?" Konstantin asks when the van starts moving, pressed against her in his tiny seat. He takes his thumb and wipes the smudged red lipstick off of Oksana's cupid's bow. 

Oksana wants to say no, like really tries to say no but instead, "Something like that."

The Closing Ceremony is in four days, with both girls' finals in two days. That means two days of intense training with barely any time together, then only two full days of just them. Then it's over. They'll go back to London and Moscow and likely never cross paths again. 

"You know, you shouldn't get too involved with foreigners here. You won't see her again after this. There's no way of balancing a long distance relationship with a gymnastics career." he warns, genuinely just trying to advise her, only ever wanting what's best for her. It’s pissing Oksana off though. She knows perfectly well that their relationship is doomed, she’s not an idiot, she doesn’t need Konstantin to share his opinion when she never asked for it. 

"Good thing I'm retiring right after these Games, then." Oksana blurts out nonchalantly, finally speaking the words she's been mulling over in her head for months. Konstantin and her three teammates go silent and turn to her, wondering if they just heard what they think they heard. 

The 'lifespan' of a professional gymnastics career is never long, with the average retirement age being around twenty-two. After so many years of intense physical training, exerting the body to manoeuvre in unnatural ways, the body will just physically give up. When the accolades don't seem so rewarding anymore, it's time to throw the towel in. The gym community have been expecting it from Oksana since she was seventeen years old, but she never explicitly mentioned it to anyone until now. The expectations and stresses that usually start to plague twenty year old gymnasts have been plaguing her since she was twelve years old. It's a miracle she even made it to Rio as a sixteen year old, let alone Tokyo as a twenty year old. 

"Okay, well we can talk about this later, Oksana. We both know you have a few more years left in you." Konstantin replies with a nervous smile which is not reciprocated, still unsure if she’s joking or not. When he loses Oksana, he loses Russia's artistic gymnastics Olympic eligibility, with none of his other gymnasts being particularly special enough to warrant qualifying in 2024. They'll get the odd silver medals in Championships, but nothing like the success Oksana has known. He's well aware of this and he respects that she isn't just a work horse, but hearing her speak the words aloud stings him a lot. 

"I'm not changing my mind, so don't try to make me. I'm tired of doing all this shit." The drive to Ariake is quiet for the rest of the way, every slight engine growl or seatbelt squeak sounds infinitely louder in the awkward silence. 

When they pull up to the gymnastics centre, Oksana takes a deep breath. She doesn't get nervous, she has nothing to worry about, ever. It's just all very real again. She is transported back to her frail, damaged sixteen year old body, recalling how it felt to be all alone in a foreign country, being told her country depended on her. Her parents never came to Rio to watch her, despite numerous invitations from various coaches and coordinators. When she called her mother after winning her two Golds, she was simply told that it could have been four Golds if she worked harder. With no friends, family or any familiar face in Rio with her, the isolation really got to her, only ever mingling with people in a sexual context. Any congratulations she received were meaningless because they weren't from someone she knew. But this time around she has Konstantin and Eve and her semi-acquaintance teammates on her side, and she isn't alone anymore. Still, she feels bitterness in her heart towards the way she has been treated her entire life and standing here in front of an Olympic gymnastics centre just brings back all the negative memories of Rio. Memories she’d never wish on anyone. 

Konstantin grabs all four of the girl's duffel bags from the trunk of the van, carrying two in each hand as he leads them into the centre. It's a huge arena, with glass panel sides and a huge timber roof. It feels very traditionally Japanese, a building style she hasn't seen much of during her time in Tokyo, with the Village looking overly Americanised as it always does. Oksana finds herself thinking back to when she was walking the backstreets of Tokyo with Eve, marvelling at all the interesting traditional architecture they saw. She pulls out her phone and snaps a picture, sending it to Eve with the caption 'arrived to the venue in one piece!' 

Oksana finds herself worrying about Eve already, something they promised each other they wouldn't do today. They're supposed to be focusing on themselves, but Oksana can’t shake the memory of waking up at 4am this morning to a crying, shouting Eve. Balls deep in a nightmare and utterly terrified of whatever images her brain was showing her. Oksana gently shook her until she was awake, slow blinking and confused. "You were having a nightmare, baby. Is everything alright?" she had asked softly, kissing her tear stained cheeks, to which Eve replied that she just needed a cuddle. She gets nightmares when she's stressed. Oksana thinks she has permission to be slightly anxious for her worried, perfectionist girl. The worst thing about Eve is that she never addresses her brilliance, preferring to focus on the successes of others instead. Oksana is good and knows she’s good and takes advantage of being good. Eve is good and yet still acts like a humble beginner. Oksana vows to get her to admit how talented she is someday. 

The inside of the gymnastics venue is huge, with wooden benches holding a capacity of 12,000 people, already almost full. The benches sit at an angle looking down upon the pit in the middle which holds each of the four female gymnastics apparatuses. Russia are the last team to arrive, with the other four teams already waiting in a communal room in the back. They’re the fifth subdivision, meaning the last group of sixteen gymnasts to compete. Sixty four gymnasts have already competed over the last few days and have their final scores. Once this subdivision is complete, the gymnasts and teams eligible for finals will be announced. 

As Team Russia enter the communal room everyone else is waiting in, Oksana can feel the gaze and hear the whispers of all the other competitors when they see her hop in on crutches. She’ll stay silent about it though, maybe even play up her injury even more to lure them into a false sense of security. She’s still getting Golds in finals, injury or no injury. It must be a relief, though, to see your biggest competition hurt. She’ll let them have it. 

“Five minutes until showtime, girls,” Konstantin finally warns after what feels like forever sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs, waiting on all the spectators, journalists and judges to arrive. “As long as you perform like you do in practice, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll be there the whole time. How are you all feeling?”

Echoes of, ‘fine’ ‘cool’ ‘good’ come unenthusiastically from the Russian girls. Oksana’s teammates are all first time Olympians, practically shitting themselves with nerves and Oksana is just less than pleased to be here, feeling sort of belittled to have to compete against gymnasts that are so below her level. There are a handful decent Chinese, American and Romanian gymnasts who pose something of a threat to Oksana’s Golds, but other than that, she’s absolutely head and shoulders above everyone else. 

Oksana is finishing up the tape job on her feet when they get the cue to start making their way into the arena, single file, with Konstantin in front holding a ‘TEAM RUSSIA’ sign. They do a full loop of the arena, waving at the cheering crowd in the stalls. There are a substantial amount of Russian flags in the audience, who’s bearers are no doubt excited to watch Oksana in particular - she’s known as Russia’s Golden Girl after all. Oksana makes sure to blow extra kisses their way. 

After doing a full loop, they eventually stop at the Vault station to begin. Vault is usually a pretty solid starting point, only consisting of a run, bounce onto springboard, then some sort of somersault to land. It takes no more than ten seconds per gymnast to complete. Oksana’s vault routine isn’t particularly groundbreaking, a double tucked somersault, but it’s a safe bet and guaranteed to earn her as close to full marks as possible. She goes first out of her team, earning a score of 15.76. She ties with another girl in her team who specialises in Vault and decides that if it comes down to it, she can take the Vault final for Russia instead of Oksana. 

Next is bars, one of Oksana’s specialties. She performs her classic bar routine, pretty similar to the one she won Gold for back in Rio, just with added complexities and a new dismount. Awarded a score of 15.86, she’s pretty much guaranteed a place in the Bars final, where she’s guaranteed a Silver at least. So far, so good. 

Balance beam is next, Oksana’s personal least favourite. If she ever slips up anywhere, it’s beam. Plenty of gymnasts have fallen off the beam already today, so as long as Oksana can stay on it and upright, she’ll get a good enough score. She is awarded a 15.00, which is acceptable considering her teammates got 12s and 13s and, looking around at the other teams, they don’t look like they scored too high either. Oksana surely has the all-round in the bag now. 

Finally, Team Russia get to showcase their floor routines. Oksana’s routine is her pride and joy, so she bids to show it last and stick in the judges’ minds. As always, they’re blown away by it, hearing screams from the crowd and ‘Go Oksana!’s from her teammates and Konstantin. She finishes her floor routine with a 15.98 and the qualifiers are over. The crowd are bustling with excitement discussing Oksana’s routine and the sports journalists are racing to be the first to report on all the never-before-attempted-soon-to-be-eponymous skills she debuted. 

“Are you happy?” Konstantin asks her with s grin as she sits on the sidelines practically chugging her water, sweat dripping from her forehead. 

Oksana just nods, still clinging to her bottle like it’s glued to her mouth and holds out her chalky hand for him to high five. 

“We find out the final results in about an hour but I think I’ve got another all-round finalist on my hands, huh? Second time all-round Gold medallist maybe?” Konstantin smiles, turning their high five into a hand hold, lifting Oksana up from the floor so she can stand and pulling her into a hug. He adds another, “I am so proud of you.”

As the gymnasts get their cue to leave the arena and back into their minivans, Oksana rushes to her duffel bag to grab her phone to text Eve, seeing a few texts from her already. 

12:25pm  
Eve: you’ve got this!!  
Eve: i’m leaving for the aquatics centre in five minutes😬

12:40pm  
Eve: got to the venue in one piece!  
(This message has a picture of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre attached, a huge building similarly about ten minutes from the Olympic Village. It appears in the picture to be even longer and wider than the gymnastics venue but similar in architecture. She smiles at Eve copying the similar message Oksana had sent her an hour earlier.)

2:03pm  
Eve: nailed my 3m springboard! i got the second highest score of all the women in my subdivision

Oksana’s face visibly lights up at Eve’s last message. While she had no doubt in her mind that Eve would smash it, seeing the words on her screen still gives her a buzz. Eve has to perform five dives from the 3m springboard and five dives from the 10m platform. Platform is Eve’s forte, her area of the most confidence so Oksana has no doubt in her mind that she will nail that as well. It’s currently 3pm and Eve has probably already completed her platform dives or is working her way through them, but Oksana sends her a little good luck text on the off chance that she might see it. 

Oksana: i knew you would! so so proud of you and good luck for your platform (even though you dont need it)🐬  
Oksana: i don’t get final results for another hour or so but i’m happy with how i did, i was the highest scorer in my subdivision which is a very good sign🤸🏼♀️🥇

Oksana grabs her crutches from the backroom then hops her way back to the minivan so they can get back to the Village. She is silently hoping that if the van drives fast enough, she might be able to watch Eve’s preliminary on one of the lounge TVs and, if the Lord loves her enough, might be able to watch her girl dive in real time. 

“After a performance like that, are you still sure you want to retire?” Konstantin asks Oksana as the van starts up and begins driving. He’s had some time now to think about what she said and wrap his head around it, understanding that a somewhat early retirement has been inevitable for her from the start. 

“Yeah,” Oksana sighs, shifting her eyes to look up at him. “I need to go live a little now. I didn’t have much of a childhood or adolescence and I don’t want to waste my twenties as well. Plus, can you think of a better swan song than the Olympics?”

Konstantin laughs a little and shakes his head, amused that even her retirement needs to be dramatic. “If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you. I guess if the finals are your last time ever competing you’ll have to do better than you ever have, right?”

“Don’t worry, I will.” she smiles as Konstantin puts his arm round her to hug her closer in the already tightly packed van. 

And it’s official. The end of her gymnastics career is in two days and she has the blessing of her coach, something she could never say as an eleven, twelve, thirteen year old. All her previous attempts to quit over the years have been unsuccessful to the point that she stopped trying. It’s impossible to ignore the excitement bubbling up inside her as they make their way back to the Village. 

It’s 4:30pm when Oksana finally hears from Eve. She’s been watching the preliminaries from one of the lounges (Oksana notes that it’s the exact same lounge they were in when they saw each other for the very first time.) but Eve never appears on the TV, leading Oksana to conclude that she just missed her. Now though, her phone is ringing and as she picks it up, it’s Eve. 

“Hi!” Oksana greets cheerily, confused when she hears all sorts of racket from Eve’s end. She starts to think she butt-dialled her or something when she finally hears Eve’s voice. 

“Hi! I did it! I got to semi finals!” Eve squeals, voice crackling with her poor reception. “I’m on my way back to the Village, me and my team are going for food and they want to meet you. I told them you’d come.”

Oksana’s heart sinks a little. She’s notoriously bad at making new friends in forced situations, normally clamming up and observing instead. Eve sounds excited about it though, and she could never let her down like that. “Well done, baby. My little dolphin, I’m so so proud of you! Are you sure your team want me there? I could just leave you guys to it and meet you later?”

“No, no! They want you there,” the phone line shuffles a little again as Eve clearly puts her phone on speaker, the shift almost deafening Oksana. “Guys, Oksana thinks you don’t want to meet her.”

All Oksana can hear is an echo of hyper British accents letting out variations of ‘we do!’ and ‘please come!’ until the line goes a little quieter again and Eve has the phone back at her ear. 

“Did you hear them?” Eve asks giddily, making Oksana smile so wide. She seriously sounds like an excited little kid right now. 

“I did,” Oksana giggles. “Where will I meet you, then? How long will you be?”

“Maybe like ten minutes. We’ll meet you at the little cafeteria next to the Team GB blocks. Save us a table for six!”

“Okay, sweetheart. I’ll see you soon, alright?” Oksana coos before the line goes dead, presumably due to Eve’s shit service on the tail-end of a Japanese highway. 

Sitting up, she grabs her crutches and begins to hop to the cafeteria, momentarily thinking about ditching them and just walking like she knows she can, but she remembers Eve told her to use them, so she will. 

Oksana sits nervously at a table for six, wearing her classic RUS SIA jacket and black leggings. She took her hair out of the gross gelled gym bun and wiped off the ruby red lipstick from the competition (she kept her mascara on and eyebrows filled in though, deciding that she likes Eve seeing her a little prettier than usual for once). She’s nervously fidgeting with her hands, overthinking what she’s going to say and what tone to use and how to greet Eve’s friends when the group burst through the door, all visibly hyper and excited.

When Eve makes eye contact, Oksana stands up immediately, abandoning her crutches as they run to embrace each other. Oksana is almost tackled to the ground when Eve finally makes contact with her, cuddling her so tight and squealing. Oksana’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much at her girl. 

“We did it! I’m so proud of you!” Oksana squeaks into Eve’s ear from where they’re hugging, lifting her up into the air a little. 

“I’m so proud of you too,” Eve motions for Oksana to lift her head up so she can kiss her, ignoring all her friends who are watching and ‘aww’ing. “Did you get your results for finals?”

Oksana nods, jumping up and down a little. “I qualified for the all-round! That’s the big one, that’s the main one. I won Gold for that in Rio. I also agreed to the Bars final which I also won Gold for in Rio. I qualified for vault and floor finals too, but I don’t want to take on too many, that’s where I went wrong in Rio. I’m just going to focus on these two and do the best I can in them.” she speaks at a hundred miles a minute, Eve catching on to every single word and sharing her excitement. Oksana’s ramblings in her thick Russian accent just sound like inaudible mumbling to Eve’s teammates, but Eve is so used to them that she can understand perfectly. 

They briefly kiss once more and Eve takes one of Oksana’s hands in her’s and introduces her to the team. There are two boys, Kenny and Hugo and two girls, Elena and Jess. It should be easy enough to remember, but Oksana is terrible with names and forgets them almost immediately after Eve tells her. 

“And this is Oksana. Please be nice to her, I like her. Don’t scare her away from me.” Eve tells her teammates and they all rush to shake her hand. 

Oksana is a little overwhelmed that there’s four people in front of her actively trying to make friends with her. She’s never had a group of friends before, only a few back home that she rarely gets to see. People don’t usually want to talk to her, either buying into diva rumours or simply being too intimidated. This is all new. 

“So you’re the girl who has Eve pussywhipped?” The smaller boy, Hugo, asks, which earns him a slap on the arm from Jess and a giggle from Oksana. 

“If you heard our phone call earlier, you’d know I’m the one who’s pussywhipped.” Oksana laughs, squeezing Eve’s hand as they go to sit down together, the divers babbling about how they never see Eve anymore and they hope she’s treating her well. 

Oksana feels a little awkward at first, listening in while they talk about their preliminaries and who did what and which countries dominated. She wasn’t there, so she can’t contribute much to the fast-paced, high-energy conversation, instead just listening in and smiling at all the jokes she only half-understands. However, eventually the topic shifts onto Eve when their coach sends his iPhone camera quality videos of their dives into the group chat. 

Hugo pulls up the video of Eve’s signature eponymous dive from 10m platform, first showing Kenny and Jess who are on his side of the table, then turning his phone so Eve, Oksana and Elena can see from their side. Everyone is gushing about how perfectly she did it, garnering no deductions and entering the water with barely any semblance of a splash. Eve is hiding her face, clearly humiliated by all the praise she’s receiving to which Oksana just wraps her arm round her shoulder. 

“Hey, why are you embarrassed? Come on, lemme see you.” Oksana pleads, giggling as Eve’s face goes even redder. 

“She has always been like this,” Elena tells her. “Literally, she won a fucking Gold medal in Rio and told Jess that she deserved it instead. Jess didn’t even get past the semi-finals.” They all laugh - including Jess, despite her misfortune. 

“We went out for her birthday a couple months ago and she got so embarrassed when we sung happy birthday that she couldn’t blow out her candles,” Kenny adds. “Is she like this with you too?”

Oksana laughs and nods, rubbing Eve’s back soothingly, letting her know they’re only teasing her. She could tell her team all sorts of embarrassing stuff about Eve that they’d have a field day with, but she doesn’t. 

“One day I’ll get her to admit how brilliant she is.” Oksana beams, looking down at her little embarrassed Eve. “But I don’t think today’s the day.”

Eve gives her thigh a squeeze and Oksana gives her a little kiss on the head. Both girls hear Jess and Elena whispering excitedly, trying to be subtle and failing miserably. (“Did you see that!”) (“They’re so cute!”)

The team decide to finally get up for some food, all opting for a variety of the chef’s freshly made pastas. The topic of conversation flows smoothly between them all, even with the new member. They discuss their favourite sports to watch, notable moments from the Games so far and iconic Olympians they’ve met. 

Oksana gets to talking to Elena about gymnastics, with Elena being the only avid watcher in the group. She’s been a fan of Oksana’s since Rio and is finally asking her every last dying question she’s ever had about her sport. (“Has anyone ever like... broken their vagina bone from falling into a straddle on beam? Because that looks like it hurts.”) Eve notes that Oksana, the girl who hates to talk about herself and her sport, is opening up a lot to Elena and her friends and it’s warming her heart to see. She knows it’s out of Oksana’s comfort zone to be in a group setting like this and she’s impressed at how well she’s doing. Every one of her team members seems to love her, all jumping at the chance to talk to her or ask her something. Hugo is impressed by her ability to keep up with his constant innuendos, she listens intently as Kenny explains the mechanics of diving to her and she gives Jess relationship advice for her on-again off-again piece of shit boyfriend. 

After over an hour of them sitting there, it feels like Oksana has been friends with them for years. It’s almost 6pm now and the high-energy social interaction is starting to tire Eve out, causing her to yawn every now and then. A squeeze of Oksana’s thighs every so often indicates that she would rather be spending time alone with her now, even if it’s just cuddling up and watching a movie in each other’s presence. 

When Eve yawns loudly for the second time in under a minute, Oksana takes it as a cue to say goodbye to everyone. “I’m going to get this sleepyhead back to my room now. It was so nice meeting you all. I’ll see you guys later, alright?” 

(The whole team stand up to hug Eve and Oksana goodbye, with Elena whispering in Oksana’s ear that, “If she ever hurts you, you’ll let me know so I can fight her, alright?” to which Oksana just giggles and agrees to. Hugo gives them a shout of “Don’t have too much fun!” as they walk away, causing Eve to turn back around and give him the middle finger.)

“Your friends are nice.” Oksana states when they’re lying in her bed together back in the Team Russia building. 

“They’re a lot to deal with sometimes, thank you for grinning and bearing it.” Eve replies. They’re both laying on their backs as Eve plays with Oksana’s hand, pressing down on her slightly raised veins. 

“I liked them. They’re fun,” she attests, turning on her side to face Eve. “I’m so so proud of you, Evie. You stress so much for no reason, you know. You’re amazing, so so talented. Even your team said they look up to you. I truly have no idea what I did to deserve you.”

Eve turns onto her side now too, facing her girl. “I’m so proud of you too. You know, I think you’re doing the right thing by turning down some of the apparatus finals. You’ve been so overworked your whole life, I think it’s really admirable that you’re stepping down from a chance at two more medals to focus on your own wellbeing.”

Oksana smiles, reaching up to play with Eve’s hair as she thinks about what to say next. “Can I tell you a secret that only my team know? And you won’t say anything?”

“Of course I won’t, you can tell me anything.”

Her girl’s eyes light up with excitement and hope and freedom as she says, “I told my coach I’m retiring today. Finals will be my last time ever competing. Two days left of gymnastics, then I can do whatever I want.”

Eve props herself up on her elbow, shocked at Oksana’s admission but equally as excited for her. “Really? What are you going to do? You’re young enough to literally do anything at all!”

“I thought about getting a qualification in something sport related. Either gymnastics coaching or personal training. I can finally move out of Russia and start a brand new life somewhere. I think I’ll travel some more, too. I’ll visit the cities I went to for Championships but never got to see much of. I’m thinking about going back to Rio to make some positive memories to override my existing ones.” Oksana gushes, clearly letting out thoughts that have been brewing in her head for months, ready to burst out at any moment. 

“You really have your whole life ahead of you,” Eve smiles, feeling a little bittersweet. Oksana has the opportunity to get out there and start a new life and get her first job and probably fall in love with someone else and hit all these landmarks that Eve has already surpassed. “When I retire, it’ll be a case of finally buying a house and quickly trying find someone to settle down with. Maybe push out a kid in the next few years. I’m thirty-two, I don’t have many fuck-around years left. Life gets serious in the real world when you’re thirty-two.”

Oksana just hums, thinking about what Eve said. “Do you want to do that stuff? Settle down with a wife and kid and be boring?”

Eve shrugs, starting to send herself into one of her recurring existential panics about what life looks like for her outside of diving. “All my friends back home have did it. They seem happy.”

“We both picked a really awkward career path, huh? Neither of us know for sure what we want to do when we get away from all this. We’re just living in this comfortable bubble, soon to be burst.” says Oksana, still playing with Eve’s hair absentmindedly as she looks up at the ceiling. 

“We have to leave each other in four days,” Eve states, letting out a defeated exhale. “You’ve been the best little love affair I’ve ever had. I just wish we met under different circumstances and we could make it work.”

Oksana pushes Eve so that she’s laying on her back, getting on top of her and littering her face with little kisses all over. “Well what if we can make it work?” she plants a kiss right on the tip of Eve’s nose, causing her to scrunch it up like a little bunny. “What if I come back to London with you?”

Eve giggles as Oksana continues to kiss her cheeks and forehead and eyes and chin, occasionally switching it up, blowing raspberries on her cheeks instead. “Then we would inevitably get sick of each other and fight every day and break up and you’d be stuck in London with no house because I kicked you out.”

Oksana feigns offence from above her, playing along with Eve, buying her time so she can seriously think about the question. “You would never.”

“You know I would,” Eve replies, lifting her head up to steal a real kiss on the lips from her girl, catching her off guard. 

They start off with slow pecks, giggling and rubbing their noses together, Oksana telling Eve she smells like pool water, but then, as always, it deepens extremely quickly. Oksana is the first to put her tongue in Eve’s mouth, still letting out a childish giggle when Eve reciprocates the motion. Oksana is still on top of Eve, straddling her waist while leaning forward. Eve’s hands drop to Oksana’s butt, squeezing it through the leggings then dropping them lower to caress her thighs. Oksana starts making little tiny noises in reaction to Eve’s hand movements, wiggling her hips a little in anticipation. 

Making her way down slightly, Oksana’s lips and teeth make it to Eve’s neck, working as best as she can with the knowledge that she can’t leave any marks. Eve loves to get her neck kissed and touched and Oksana finds herself wondering if maybe she likes being choked. Lightly of course, just some pressure on the sides for a few seconds before letting go again. She figures it’s better to ask before doing that, though. She makes her way further down to Eve’s clavicle, kissing and biting at her collarbone before pulling up her sports bra over her head, making quick work on her nipples, making them hard with her mouth then teasing them with her fingers. 

Oksana points at a spot just under Eve’s left boob and asks, “Is this part covered up by your swimsuit? Like when you’re diving?”

Eve giggles at the randomness of the question. “Obviously. You think I just have my underboob out on show for the world to see?”

“Hey, I’m just asking, don’t be mean. You ruined the moment now. I was going to ask if I could like... you know-”

“If you could what?” Eve teases. She knows exactly what Oksana wants to do but seeing her get all cute and shy is absolutely adorable. 

Oksana blushes a little, looking down at the spot on Eve’s chest. “If I could like... kiss it and stuff?”

Eve’s eyebrows raise in fake confusion. “Weren’t you just kissing me everywhere anyway? Why does it matter if it’s covered up by my swimsuit?”

“Eve,” Oksana whined and smiled up at her shyly. “You know why. You just want me to say it.”

Eve nods, moving Oksana’s hair from where it has fallen slightly over her face. “I’m just teasing you, go ahead. Go crazy on my back and stomach but no where visible, alright?”

Oksana nods and quickly gets to it, sucking and biting little lovebites into the skin of Eve’s tummy. It takes a moment for Eve to realise she’s leaving her marks in very specific places, making a perfect little circle of hickeys, and when she’s done she stops altogether, going back to kissing down Eve’s tummy. 

“Whats the circle?” Eve asks, leaning forward to admire her new marks a little closer, already starting to turn bright red. 

“It’s my initial. Incase you forget who gave you them.”

Eve giggles, admiring the ‘O’ in a new way now. “So I get to do an ‘E’ on you later?”

Oksana nods and crawls back up to kiss Eve on the lips again. They kind of killed any sexual tension they had going on before and now they’re starting from the beginning again. Just as they’re building up to it again, an idea pops into Oksana’s head and she has to interrupt them. 

“Sorry,” she starts, laughing a little at Eve’s eye roll when she pulls away. “I want to show you something. If you think it’s weird just tell me and we can forget I ever showed you, okay?”

“Okay?” Eve replies tentatively, fully prepared for Oksana to show her a dead body or something by her nervous body language. Her girl motions to the bottom drawer of her bedside cabinet, motioning Eve to open it. Oksana sits back, biting at her lip and nervously swaying a little as she waits for Eve to see what’s inside. 

Eve doesn’t exactly know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t a full drawer of sex toys. Okay, maybe ‘full drawer’ is an exaggeration, theres about five of them, all different shapes, sizes and colours. “You brought these here with you?” Eve asks, to which Oksana just nods a little. 

Eve is picking up each toy and examining it, trying to find out what each of them do. Theres a regular vibrator, a magic wand vibrator, two regular dildos and...a strap-on dildo? “You really came prepared, huh? How much sex were you planning to have?”

“You underestimate how many random hookups I had in Rio. I planned to do the same in Tokyo until I met you and didn’t want to fuck anyone else,” Oksana shrugs, not missing the way Eve’s lips curl up at the oddly cute sentiment. “If you think it’s weird we can-”

“Can I wear this?” Eve asks excitedly, as she pulls the strap-on out of the drawer. “Will you let me?”

Oksana shakes her head and pouts. “No, I want to wear it. It’s mine so I get to wear it.”

“Yeah, but you’re the biggest bottom out of both of us.” Eve states, causing Oksana’s cheeks to flush red again. 

“I’m not a bottom.”

“Well, neither am I.”

Eve puts it back into the drawer, sitting up and pushing Oksana back on the bed, crawling on top of her and kissing her face all over, a repeat of what Oksana was doing earlier. “Let’s make a deal. Whoever wins Gold gets to wear it.”

“What if we both win Gold?” 

Eve looks up for a moment to think. “Then whoever wins the most Golds.”

“What if we both win the same amount?”

“Then we’ll take turns with it.” Eve decides. “But only after our finals. We can’t use it until then. Deal?”

Oksana giggles when Eve begins tickling her sides, managing to squeak out a, “Deal.” before attaching their lips for the third time, hoping that maybe this time will lead to sex instead of just messing around. 

When Eve begins tugging at Oksana’s waistband, silently asking her to take them off, she knows she got her wish. Eve takes hers off too along with her underwear, prompting Oksana to take her underwear off too. They’re starting to get good at this now. They know the exact places they each like to be touched, know the different sounds they make for different feelings, can tell by the way their bodies react if they want more or less of something. Oksana’s hips bucking up as they kiss is always the telltale sign that she’s ready for more, so needy and desperate from barely any touches. 

Eve’s hands wander down beneath Oksana’s thighs, never touching her where she needs it, just rubbing and tickling at her inner thighs. It’s making Oksana go a little crazy, trying to focus on making out with Eve while her hand is so close yet so far away from where she wants it to be. Just when Oksana thinks Eve is finally going to touch her, she pulls back and disconnects their lips. 

“Well, what toy do you want to use, sweetheart?” Eve asks, motioning to the still-open drawer as if her girl could possibly forget what’s in there. Oksana just lets out a little embarrassed whine, protesting against having to ask for what she wants. All she wants is for Eve to do everything for her, make decisions for her, use her body however she wants it. The autonomy Eve insists on giving her every time they have sex makes her feel a little shy, not used to having to vocalise these things. “I asked you a question, baby. Whining isn’t an answer.”

“Dildo,” she pants out. “Please, just need something inside.”

“Which one, baby? Big one or little one?” Eve asks, voice infuriatingly calm while she sends waves of electricity through Oksana’s body with every hand movement on her thighs. 

“Big one, Eve, please, now.” her desperate girl moans out, being so so impatient but trying her hardest to stay as calm as possible. 

Eve nods and smiles at her, briefly taking her eyes off of Oksana while she bends down to grab it from the drawer. It’s big. About eight inches long and pretty thick too, and it’s flesh coloured to look like a real penis. Eve can’t help but wonder if she bought it for that reason, or if she just liked the size and shape of it. 

“Can you take this whole thing?” Eve asks, to which Oksana replies a little ‘mhm’. “You use this a lot?” which garners the exact same ‘mhm’ noise once again from Oksana. 

“Show me,” Eve replies, handing the dildo over to Oksana who looks at her wide-eyed, a little confused by Eve’s words. “Let me watch you use it. Show me how good you can make yourself feel.”

Oksana nods, desperate to be a good girl for Eve. If Eve wants a show, she’ll make it so good for her. Her wetness is already threatening to drip onto the sheets and she knows there would be no resistance if she tried to put it in dry right now, but she has a better idea. Putting the dildo up to her mouth, she begins to suck on it while maintaining eye contact with Eve, attempting to deepthroat it to the best of her abilities, only able to take about half of it before gagging. (She’s a lesbian after all, deepthroating is not something she’ll ever need to properly learn.) Still, she does her best, getting it nice and wet as Eve watches intently, seeing the drool begin to leak out of Oksana’s mouth with her administrations. Eve finds herself wishing she really did have a dick to fuck her with and make her choke on, the thought causing wetness to pool even more between Eve’s legs. 

When the toy is nice and wet from her saliva, Oksana brings it down to where she needs it most, first rubbing it against her clit and between her folds, teasing herself for Eve’s eyes only. After a few minutes of teasing, she lines it up with her hole, slowly pushing it in inch by inch. Eve and Oksana never break eye contact once, even as Oksana’s eyes attempt to flutter closed with the new feeling of being full, her brain won’t let her look away from Eve for a second. She whines loudly when the toy bottoms out, filling her up completely and rapidly increases her heart rate. 

“It feels good?” Eve asks as Oksana’s eyes attempt to close but can’t. Oksana moans at her question, making Eve pull her hair a little. “When I ask a question, you answer.”

“Yes. Yes, baby. Feels so good. Wish you would fuck me with it,” she whines, gyrating her hips against the bed, pushing it slightly deeper in to herself but still not moving it in and out yet. She only wants that to be Eve’s job. She only ever wants to feel this kind pleasure from Eve. 

Eve reaches down, tugging at the base, wiggling it around a little, watching Oksana’s body react to the dildo moving inside her, her fingers trembling and thighs shaking. She’s so sensitive to any little touch she’s given and it’s one of Eve’s favourite things about her. Eve decides to have mercy on her, finally holding on to the base and slipping it out almost entirely before pushing it back in again. Her movements start off slow, but gradually get faster and faster until she’s fucking it in and out of Oksana at a rapid pace, watching her eyes roll back and her fingers desperately clawing at anything she can reach. Every single thrust hits her g-spot dead on and its almost too much for her, starting to slip out of her self aware head space, head getting cloudier until she’s just surrounded by Eve and filled up by Eve and owned by Eve. 

Oksana can’t come just from this though, and they both know that. Eve places two fingers from her free hand into Oksana’s mouth, feeling them vibrate as the girl moans around them, getting them nice and wet before descending to her clit. The wet fingers make direct contact with it, beginning to move steadily while her other hand keeps fucking her rapidly with the dildo. She’s a fucking mess, tears streaming down her face, unable to form any coherent sound as Eve fucks her into oblivion. 

“What’s wrong?” Eve teases as Oksana lets out a string of broken whines, her body almost thrashing around. Eve’s ability to make her feel so good so fast will never cease to amaze Oksana. “It feels good?”

Eve moves up from where she lays, briefly halting her motions causing Oksana to let out a little huff, wiggling her hips to try and get any friction she can. She lowers her face down until she’s level with Oksana’s pussy, pulling the toy out and discarding it on the bed somewhere. The toy is replaced by three of Eve’s fingers, twisting and curling expertly as she works Oksana’s clit with her tongue. While her fingers don’t reach as deep as the toy did, they can move in ways the toy couldn’t, pleasuring her girl in a completely different way and bringing her dangerously close to the edge. 

“Eve,” she whines, dropping her hands to the brown mop of curls, tugging and guiding her to the right spots. “I can’t...I won’t last longer...”

“It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re so good. Let go whenever you need to, alright?”

She tries to last as long as she can, never wanting Eve’s tongue and mouth and fingers to ever stop their motions. When Eve moves her head up a little to Oksana’s tummy, giving her a love bite there, she’s done for. The feeling of Eve’s teeth and tongue and lips claiming her, leaving a semi-permanent mark on her body is just too much and she cums all over Eve’s fingers, ready to black out at any moment. 

Eve watches her girl, all blissed out and sleepy as she floats on a cloud of post-orgasmic haze, looking so so peaceful and content, breath still heaving a little, but slowly returning to normal. When Eve’s head drops down to between her legs again, cleaning up the mess she made all over her thighs and butt, Oksana makes a confused sound. 

“Just cleaning you up, darling. Relax for me, okay?” which elicits a little nod from the younger girl. 

Eve licks up all the wetness that seeped out of Oksana, paying close attention to her hole and clit, still glistening with her essence. She’s genuinely just trying to dry Oksana up a little, making it more comfortable for her to sleep, so when Oksana has her hands back in Eve’s hair again, letting out breathy sighs, she’s surprised. Surprised that her girl is ready to go again so soon after the last time. Nevertheless, she continues her motions, obliging as Oksana’s hands absentmindedly guide her to her clit again. Fingers in her hair tighten when she begins sucking at her sensitive little nub, feeling even more wetness slip out, soaking her chin. Oksana’s second orgasm isn’t as intense as her first, to the point that Eve barely recognises that it’s happening, just feels Oksana shaking and pushing her head away, too sensitive for any more. Eve leaves one last peck on her clit before moving back up the bed to cuddle her. 

Oksana is pretty much asleep instantly after that, with Eve pulling the duvet over both of them and kissing her on the cheek, drawing little patterns on her tummy with her fingers. 

“You didn’t get your turn.” Oksana mumbles, feeling Eve pressing up beside her and spooning her. 

“We’re both too tired, baby. We can go again in the morning,” Eve says gently, placing a little peck on the back of her head. “For now, let’s just sleep.”

“Goodnight.” Oksana whispers, putting her hand on top of Eve’s where it rests on her stomach. 

“Goodnight, baby.” Eve replies, cuddling up to her closer. 

(‘I love you’ she wants to add. But she won’t. Because that would be weird.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the way i edited and am posting this in between serving customers at work. when i get fired for writing lesbian porn while on the clock then you’ll all realise
> 
> i wanna write non vanilla sex so bad😭😭but it wouldnt fit with these characters so i gotta wait til my next fic smh
> 
> twitter: @astankovas_


	5. loves me not

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me to my brain: please progress the story onwards please i am begging  
> brain cell #1: what if they kiss in a field??  
> brain cell #2: what if they fuck in a field??
> 
> NSFW

Oksana is once again woken up in an unfortunately all-too-familiar manner. Eve's having another nightmare, lying on her stomach twitching, trying to make sounds, but nothing louder than whispers and mumbles are coming out. Luckily, Oksana has been a light sleeper her whole life, the tiniest pin drop being enough to wake her.

She shakes Eve awake with little coos of, "shh." "you're alright." "come on, wake up.", giving her a soft, reassuring smile when she opens her eyes. Once again, Eve looks disorientated and confused, clearly not even aware of what her nightmare was about or why she’s awake. 

"What was it?" Eve croaks, voice still thick from sleep. "Did I wake you up again?"

"I was awake anyway," Oksana lies, knowing that Eve fusses over her too much and would hate to know she woke her up. It's hardly an impossible task. If it's raining, she'll be awake all night. If her neighbours back home have a party, she'll be awake all night. If someone snores beside her, she'll be awake (and angry) all night. Being a light sleeper has seemed like a curse her entire life, but now she figures that if there's a Creator, they gave her this annoying trait on purpose, so she can sense immediately when Eve needs her during the night. And that, she thinks, is worth the twenty years of insomnia. "You had a nightmare again. Do you not remember?"

Eve shakes her head, nuzzling up closer to her girl, enjoying the cosy exchange of body heat. "What time is it?"

A phone lights up on the bedside table from where Oksana taps it, squinting her eyes at the intense brightness as she reads out the time. 4:43am. They still have plenty of time to sleep, with Eve's semifinals starting at 2pm. Technically, Oksana should be training at that time, but she's confident enough in her abilities that she can skip it and watch Eve instead. She won't tell her this until later, though. She's under enough pressure as it is.

"You're comfy." Eve states quietly from where she's draped over Oksana, cuddled into her neck. 

"You're heavy," Oksana replies with a little giggle. "Now go back to sleep, it's a big day for you today."

Eve huffs. "Too nervous to sleep now."

Oksana turns to face her, pressing a little kiss on her forehead. "I'm here. Don't want you to ever be nervous when I'm here, okay?"

Oksana positions herself so she's kissing Eve's lips this time, hoping to distract her a little from her own thoughts. For the past few days, Eve has been a little ball of nerves, over thinking every single scenario that could possibly come to fruition during her event. ("Well, what if I don't make it to finals?" "You're the reigning Gold champion, who cares if you don't?”) ("What if I forget my routine?" "You won't. You've been practicing for four years.") ("What if I smack the water and injure both legs so badly that they need to be amputated?" "I'll still kiss your little knee stubs.")

Now though, they're just kissing, lips moving expertly together, swollen from sleep. Oksana's hand cups Eve's cheek, slowly moving it down to her jawline then to her neck and back up again. They're sleepy and hazy and can't get enough of touching one another like this. It’s all they need. Oksana gives one last peck then attempts to cuddle up and go back to sleep before she hears Eve's small voice speak up again. 

"Will you help me go back to sleep?"

"Are you actually horny at 5am?" Oksana deadpans, although clearly holding in a giggle underneath. 

Eve rolls her eyes playfully before rolling back over to sleep. "You can't just kiss me like that and expect me not to be. But fine, I'll sleep without your help if you insist."

"No!" Oksana insists, ensuring she keeps her voice down, just trying not to wake up her teammates at this ungodly hour (however if this early wake up call goes to Eve's plan, they make no promises for noises that ensue later.) "Of course I'll help you. You know I will."

With that, Eve is rolling onto her back again, connecting her lips with Oksana's once again in a slow, passionate, sleepy rhythm. Relaxing, even. Oksana's left hand drops below Eve's clavicle, trailing with one finger as she traces the outline of Eve's tits. Grabbing a handful, she takes her time massaging them as they continue to make out. It's not even particularly sexual, just close and warm and intimate. Oksana's hands are more focused right now, contrasting against her usual restlessness and fast pace, grabbing at whatever she can. She's gentle and loving, reacting perfectly to every whine and shuffle from Eve. 

When Oksana's hands trail down lower to Eve's pussy, Eve's breaths turn to little huffs. A single finger traces lightly over her clit and it's more soothing than sexual. Eve doesn't even feel desperate and turned on like she normally does, just enjoying Oksana's presence and motions. They don't even have a particular end goal. Normally, when they touch each other like this it's carnal and intense and needy, but right now it's just comforting and soft and warm. If Eve orgasms, it's just a bonus. They're still softly kissing, drinking each other in, wondering how they each got so lucky. Another finger is introduced alongside the first, rubbing Eve's clit gently side to side. Oksana wallows in every tired sigh Eve lets out as she unwinds, body loosening up. Eve's hands are touching Oksana's sides, running up and down and sending shivers down Oksana's spine. It feels like they're in Heaven together. Happy, content and relaxed.

Eve eventually comes with a particularly strong exhale, twitching a little as she softens, body feeling suddenly more pliant against the mattress. Oksana's fingers keep rubbing gently until Eve bucks her hips a little in a request for her to stop. They have learned that they're both extremely sensitive after climaxing, usually unable to go again without a short break, so Oksana lifts her hand away as soon as Eve motions her to. 

No words are spoken the entire time, and the room maintains a comfortable silence afterwards too. Eve simply pushes her back up close to Oksana so she's the little spoon and they drift back off to a blissful sleep again. If Eve's mind is even a little less stressed, Oksana knows her job is done. If she's woken up in thirty minutes by Eve having another nightmare, she'll do exactly the same again, help her to relax by any means necessary. As long as Eve is by her side, she'll always look after her, no matter what. 

"Were you joking last night?" Eve asks quietly from where she's cuddled up beside Oksana, watching as the beginning of the Tokyo sunrise shines through the window and reflects onto her skin. It's 6:30am when they wake up for good, laying in bed while they procrastinate getting up for breakfast. "When you said you'd come to London?"

She shakes her head slowly, too sleepy to actually reply, relishing in the body heat from the woman next to her and the warm duvet blanketing them. When she speaks it comes out more of a croak. "I like London. I have no reason to stay in Russia, so why not?"

Eve sighs. It really isn't a good idea, objectively. At the end of the day, they barely know each other. They've opened up about so much in such a short time. Eve knows Oksana's favourite food is pasta, she hates ghosts, she's ambidextrous and she can guess anyone's zodiac sign just from one conversation. However, she’s never seen her angry or upset. They’ve never had a fight they’ve had to overcome. They haven’t established the little annoying things they each do that irritate the life out of each other. Living in close proximity will be like simmering their relationship on a low heat, just waiting on the inevitable boil to come along and burn them. It’s not that Eve doesn’t want Oksana to come to London, she just dreads the thought of their relationship ever losing it’s strength. It’s been two weeks. Only two weeks. Typically, it would be way too early to discuss the future like this, but with two days left in Tokyo, there isn’t much choice. Either they talk about it and set boundaries or they don’t. There’s hardly a wealth of options here. 

“I just think it’s too soon.” Eve sighs, scanning Oksana’s face for any sort of visual reaction. She’s still wrapped up like a burrito in her little blanket nest with her eyes only half-open. She looks so cuddly and warm. 

“I don’t need to move in with you. I’ll get my own apartment. It just means we’d be closer, right?” Oksana sits up a little now, eyebrows drawn together, worried about Eve’s previous unenthused statement. 

“What if it doesn’t work out? We could ruin things if we’re too close, like if we see each other too much.”

“Oh, so living in two different countries won’t ruin it more?” Oksana’s voice is raising a little, more confused at Eve’s hesitance and logic than anything else. “You realise that most early relationships take place between two people in the same city, right? If you think seeing each other is a bad thing then I don’t know what to tell you.”

Deep down, Eve knows that Oksana doesn’t believe she’s good enough for Eve. She’s never had someone give her mutual care and love, with everyone in her life leaving her eventually. She has voiced her fears of abandonment before, worried that Eve only sees her as a short vacation fling instead of something serious. Nonetheless, Oksana’s passive-aggressive, condescending tone is still jarring to hear. 

“I’m not trying to argue with you.” Eve states calmly, placing a hand on Oksana’s cheek gently in an attempt to calm her down a little, but Oksana just turns around so she has her back to Eve. 

“If you don’t want me outside of all this, just say,” she mumbles softly, sounding weak and powerless. “I just thought we could make it work. You don’t even sound willing to try.”

“I just need to think, okay? Remember it’s been fourteen days. Realistically, we barely know each other.” Eve begins playing with Oksana’s hair softly, wishing she’d turn around again to look at her. “Of course I still want you. These are just awkward circumstances and I don’t know what to think. Give me some time and I’ll make a plan for us, alright?”

Oksana just nods a little and shuffles back against Eve’s front, prompting Eve to wrap her arm round her, spooning her. Eve can feel Oksana’s body is a little tense, heart beating fast from their exchange. She’s just worried that Eve doesn’t want her when in reality, Eve’s never wanted anyone more. Oksana needs constant reassurance, and if she feels she isn’t getting it, Eve will take complete blame for that. 

“You’re my baby,” Eve coos after a few minutes of semi-tense silence. “Would you think it’s weird if I told you I love you?”

Oksana giggles a little. “After fourteen days? When we aren’t even girlfriends? I’d think you’re insane. But would you think it’s weird if I told you I love you too?”

Eve embraces her even closer, squeezing her a little and smiling. “So weird.”

Oksana twists around so that she’s facing Eve again, pushing loose curls away from her face so she can see without interruptions. Placing a little kiss on her forehead, she wraps her arms around Eve’s neck like a koala. “This whole situation is weird. I almost never came to the Olympics this year, could you imagine? I could’ve been with my cat in Russia right now.”

“Are you glad you came?” Eve asks, batting her eyelashes animatedly. 

Oksana nods. “What other circumstance would we have met?”

“Well if you believe in all that soulmate stuff we would have met no matter what. I just wish we met the way normal people do. At a bar or in our boring office job or something. Less complicated than this.”

“Well, at least we have a cool story for the grandkids.” Oksana muses, leaning down to kiss Eve on the lips. 

They reposition so Oksana is straddling Eve as they make out, feeling so connected in the best possible way. They’ll never tire of this. Time is running out for them fast and Eve’s mind is preoccupied with ideas of ways they can make this work and finals are tomorrow and it’s all overly stressful. It feels like kissing Oksana and talking to Oksana and touching Oksana is the only thing that’s promised these days, even though it absolutely isn’t. 

“We’re getting way too comfortable with kissing before we’ve brushed our teeth,” Eve comments with a giggle as she pulls away to catch her breath, standing up and motioning Oksana to do the same. “Come on, let’s get ready before the cafeteria gets too busy.”

Eve’s semifinals consist of eighteen divers performing five dives each, with twelve making it to finals. For 3m springboard, they must perform a dive from each of the five categories: forward, backward, reverse, inward and twisting. Springboard is not Eve’s favourite type of dive, but she excels at it nonetheless. For 10m platform, they can perform any type of dive, including handstand dives, so long as at least one is forward facing. Eve won Gold for her platform in Rio and is regarded as a definite one to watch in Tokyo, so, in theory, she should have nothing to worry about. 

Eve being Eve though, worries about everything anyway. As soon as she got out of bed with Oksana she was hitting her with “what-if” scenarios at 100 miles an hour. As she showered, she had visions of failing semifinals again, feeling herself cry a little from the bad memories (she tried to convince herself it was just shower water.) When she walked to breakfast with Oksana, she almost had a panic attack, needing to stand still for a moment while Oksana hugged her comfortingly, stroking her back and telling her everything’s okay. She could only eat little pieces of her breakfast omelette, too sick to her stomach to finish it, to which Oksana just encouraged her to eat what she can and don’t push herself. 

“I’m sorry I keep bringing the mood down.” Eve sighs, staring down at her still-full plate and comparing it to Oksana’s almost empty one. 

“Don’t be. Let all your worries out, you’ll feel lighter when it comes to competing.” Oksana smiles, placing her hand over where Eve’s is sitting on the table (the one hand that Eve isn’t currently chewing all the nails off of.)

“When I was your age,” Eve starts, laughing when she sees Oksana roll her eyes and make a comment about how ‘it’s only a twelve year age gap!’. “When I was 20 at my first Olympics, I completely screwed up during semifinals and fucked it all up for myself and my team. I think I came 17th. It was so difficult and embarrassing for me. Ever since I was seven, I dreamed of someday making it to the Olympics to the point that I dropped most of my non-diver friends, disregarded my grades in school and had no other backup plan. I moved continent as an eighteen year old, completely on my own, to dive for GB. Sacrificing everything and still failing was my worst nightmare come true. It gave me this crippling sense of fear when it comes to competing. Before the Championships in 2019 I almost passed out before it was my turn. If I fail again today I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it, I’ve worked so hard.”

Her girl just nods and squeezes her hand a little, taking in everything she says. It’s a different perspective. While Eve has an undying passion and drive for her sport, Oksana simply sees hers as something she’s good at and can receive attention for. While Eve lives in constant fear of failure, Oksana has never really experienced failure so doesn’t think about it. What’s certain is that they both work hard at what they do and just want to reap the benefits of their efforts. 

“You sound like you’re worrying yourself into an early grave.” Oksana comments, not exactly knowing what to say to comfort her. “Just remember why you started diving. You started because it was fun, right? So just go to your semifinal with the objective of having fun. Any rewards you get are just a bonus.”

“I wish my dad was still with us. He was seriously my biggest fan,” Eve smiles fondly, rubbing the back of Oksana’s hand with her thumb. “He decorated the house when I went to Rio. Like banners outside, balloons, signs down the street. He invited all the neighbours to come round for a barbecue to watch me. We would FaceTime every night while he showed me new diving-theme decorations he made to put up around the house. He ordered a cake with a picture of me diving on it, it was so ugly but he was so happy with it. When I won Gold, he cried to me on the phone. It was the first time I ever heard him cry. He really supported me from the very beginning, buying all my gear and driving me to competitions and watching hours and hours of other kids’ shitty dives just to see one of mine.”

Eve continues to tell cute, silly stories about her parents and friends back home. She seems relaxed. Happy. There’s a huge difference between this Eve and the Eve who, not twenty minutes ago, was edging on a panic attack. Oksana’s heart warms as she listens to Eve gush about the people she loves. 

“I think he would’ve liked you, you know,” Eve professes, smiling as Oksana’s face lights up. “My Dad always looked after me. He didn’t approve of many of my past partners. He would tolerate them, but insisted I should be treated like a princess and whatnot. That sort of Dad-like protectiveness. I know he would’ve liked you, you’re really good to me.”

Oksana’s heart melts a little. She’s never loved anyone or been loved before. Prior to this, her view of love had only come from books and TV shows and movies. Every ‘romantic’ thing she does with Eve is an experiment, still trying to figure out how to express love in her real life. She never had an overprotective father or boy-crazy friends to teach her all this stuff. It’s all so new and to hear she’s doing a good job is all she ever needed to hear. 

“I would’ve liked him too. It sounds like we’re on the same page about how special you are,” Oksana concedes. “Do you have training before you compete or are you just going straight into it?”

Eve looks at the smartwatch on her wrist, tapping to show her the time. Almost 8am. “We have some trampoline training first. It’s optional because some divers don’t find it helpful right before competitions. Trampolining is about landing on your feet whereas diving is about landing head-first. I’ll probably skip it, it sometimes fries my brain a little before competing.”

“Do you want to go running or something instead?” Oksana asks, finishing off her can of Red Bull and throwing it into a bin about six feet away, celebrating a little when she lands it in. 

“Sure. On the track or round the Village?”

“Depends. How long can you go?” Oksana asks, raising her eyebrow a little competitively. 

“Longer than you,” Eve quips. 

Oksana shakes her head and smiles. “There’s a path by the duck pond that goes for miles, I ran there on my second day here. I’ll take you there, it’ll be fun. Whoever runs furthest gets to pick dinner tonight. We could go to a nice restaurant outside of the Village, get away from this cafeteria food. Deal?”

“Deal.” Eve affirmed. 

(They also have a semi-argument regarding Oksana’s crutches. She refuses to use them because, “How the fuck can I go running with one foot?” Eve decides she’s probably right, but insists that if she feels any pain in her ankle whatsoever, she’s carrying her home.)

Two miles in and they’re going strong. The path is long and winding with a river running alongside it to their right, feeding into Tokyo Bay. To their left is a wealth of native Japanese flora, all sorts of daffodils and hydrangeas and chrysanthemums growing between tall grass and weeds. Bees bumble amongst the flowers and the occasional butterflies fly overhead. Eve’s usual daily runs around a local park in London are no where near as beautiful as this. Every time they see a new type of cool insect or bird they point it out to one another, both happily running in amazement while they take in their surroundings.

At four miles in, they lose the river beside them, turning a corner to a wider stretch of path with field on either side. Every so often, another group of athletes run or jog past them. By the looks of it, a lot of the Japanese athletes train here, more familiar with the adjacent area than the other nations. They smile and greet every group they run past, usually a “konnichiwa” but also the occasional “hola” and “ni hao”, depending on the flag embroidered into their t-shirts. Eve and Oksana continue talking about random topics as usual, with Oksana’s main focus on distracting Eve from her nerves. 

They’re six miles deep when they start to tire a little. They’ve been at it for around thirty five minutes, impressed with each other’s stamina and pace. But they’re pro athletes after all, six miles is like a warmup to them. When Oksana’s water supply starts lowering they decide to call it quits with Eve, technically, stopping first by half a second. 

“I win!” Oksana yelps as she finally slows herself down, panting a little as she sits down to catch her breath, leaning her head back. Its easily over 30°C, heating up gradually as the morning shifts to afternoon and they’re sweating buckets. “I get to pick dinner tonight. I’m taking you somewhere fancy, we can get a good steak or something.”

Eve lowers herself and lays down next to Oksana. They’re currently lying in wild grass in some field under a tree, listening as cicadas sing all around them and birds fly over head. A warm breeze envelops them, making it hard to cool down. 

“It’s beautiful here, huh?” Eve muses, staring up at the clear blue sky, partially interrupted by the leaves of the huge tree above them. It’s so peaceful and calm and warm. 

“Yeah. I like exploring with you,” Oksana replies, grabbing Eve’s hand and squeezing. “You feeling any calmer?”

“I guess so. Still gonna shit myself before every dive though.”

“Please don’t.” Oksana giggles rolling onto her front. She picks a daisy out of the grass and gives it to Eve who smiles and feigns flattery, playing along as if Oksana just handed her a fancy bouquet. 

Eve picks a buttercup from the grass beside her. “Do you like butter?”

“What, like the food?” Oksana asks to which Eve nods. She takes a drink from Eve’s water bottle, having already finished her own. Eve doesn’t mind though. She’d let her drink it all even if they were dying in a desert. “Yes, I like butter.”

Holding the buttercup under Oksana’s chin, Eve’s face lights up as the flower reflects a golden glow onto it. “You’re right! You didn’t lie.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Oksana giggles, just happy to watch and listen to Eve talk her shit forever. 

Eve hands her the buttercup and tells her to hold it under her chin. She explains that if your chin turns yellow, you like butter. If not, you don’t. It’s another one of Eve’s weird Western childhood games. Oksana beams as Eve’s chin turns yellow, a 100% foolproof solid piece of evidence that Eve also likes butter. 

Eve begins picking more daisies out of the grass, poking little holes in the stems and feeding other daisies through them. Ten daisies later, she’s left with a chain, connecting the final two together to make a circle. The flimsy little flower crown is then placed on Oksana’s head as she watches in amazement. She tells Eve that she never made daisy chains as a child. No one ever taught her how to and even if they did, she never got to spend much time outside anyway. Eve vows that as long as Oksana is happy to spend time outdoors, she’ll be with her every step of the way. Eve has been outdoorsy ever since she was born, with her father always taking her camping and kayaking and hiking whenever he could. If Oksana is willing, Eve will teach her all that stuff too. 

“Do you know this game?” Eve asks, picking a daisy out of the grass and holding it up to show Oksana. “You pull one petal off at a time, see?”

Eve pulls the first petal. “She loves me.” Then the next petal. “She loves me not. Whatever the last petal says is the truth. According to like real life science and stuff.”

Eve passes the flower to Oksana for her to try it. _She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not._ Eve watches intently, waiting on the fate of this daisy like she’ll be waiting on the fate of her semifinal results in the next few hours. All that stuff is pushed to the back of her mind when she’s with Oksana, so peaceful as she watches each petal float away as it’s pulled off. 

“She loves me,” Oksana concludes softly, smiling as she pulls the last petal off and drops the remnants of the daisy onto the grass. “The daisy never lies, Eve.”

Eve pulls Oksana down by the neckline of her ugly, patriotic Russian t-shirt and connects their lips, sighing with delight as she does. They’re sweaty and gross from their run and the hot weather but neither of them care at all. Oksana’s teeth begin playfully biting at Eve’s bottom lip, causing them both to giggle a little. Oksana’s body is on top of Eve’s now, held up only by her elbows. Both of Oksana’s hands make their way into Eve’s hair, tugging a little like she knows Eve likes. They’re fully making out in public right now. Probably on some poor Japanese farmer’s land. Any groups of athletes or dog-walkers or tourists would see them right now if they walked past, but they don’t care at all right now. The rest of the world is blocked out and it’s just them. Eve’s hands trail down until they reach her girl’s ass, kneading like dough. In response, Oksana begins grinding down a little on Eve’s thigh, breathing getting heavier. 

Eve jumps a little as Oksana repositions herself and the flower crown falls from her head and onto Eve’s face, causing them both to break the kiss and laugh. Oksana’s new position means that one of Eve’s thighs is perfectly positioned for her to gyrate upon, which Eve doesn’t really notice until Oksana starts whining into her mouth. 

“Are you really horny in the middle of a field?” Eve asks in amusement, slapping her girl’s ass as she does. “Anyone could see you right now, dirty girl.”

Oksana moans at her words, grinding her hips down harder as she tries to connect her lips with Eve’s again. “Are you gonna fuck me?”

Eve casts her eyes upwards to the needy girl above her, trying and failing to get off using only her thigh. She then casts her eyes to the well-used path just ten feet away from them, dented with fresh footsteps and recent bike wheel marks. They really can’t do this here, but when Oksana is in this mood, Eve can’t find it in herself to say no. It would be a six mile journey back to the Village with a pouty, frustrated girl which isn’t ideal for either of them. But if someone catches them they’ll be in trouble. If someone recognises them they’ll be in even more trouble. Spending the night in a Japanese cell the day before their Olympic Games events would be the worst case scenario. 

“Stand up.” Eve orders, sitting up and attempting to coerce Oksana off of her. 

“What? Eve...” Oksana whines, face dropping as she realises Eve is serious. “Please.”

“Come on, I’m taking you somewhere more private.” Eve explains, grabbing Oksana’s hand and pulling her away from the spot they were innocently laying in before. Eve scans the area for any sign of privacy when she sees a small wooded area out of sight from the path and field. 

Oksana’s heart races as Eve confidently leads her towards the group of trees, squeezing Eve’s hand affectionately which is happily reciprocated. Oksana is so wet already, the idea of doing it outside adding an extra thrill. It’s not her first time, having done it against a random outdoor wall in the Rio Olympic Village with some random stranger who didn’t know what she was doing. This is different though. Because it’s Eve. And as much as it makes her cringe to admit, she loves Eve. 

Feeling her back being pushed against a tree, Oksana whines as Eve has finally found a comfortable, private place to make her feel good. 

“You want my fingers or my mouth?” Eve asks as she plants little kisses from her jawline down to her neck, fogging up Oksana’s mind so much that she can’t think about the question, simply just letting out a broken “please.” Eve doesn’t touch her where she needs her yet, though, waiting on Oksana to answer. “Come on, baby, use your words. We don’t have all day.”

“Both.” she pants, once again begging Eve to do something, the wetness in her panties becoming more and more exigent. 

“Good girl.” Eve replies with a smile, dropping to her knees and slowly pulling down Oksana’s tight cycling shorts and soaked underwear. She only plans on pulling them down to her ankles, but when Oksana steps out of them and kicks them away elsewhere, Eve can’t exactly complain. 

Oksana is leaning back on the tree, bark digging into her back and exposed butt as she wears only her t-shirt and sports bra. This should be humiliating, feeling the warm breeze in places that shouldn’t be exposed to it, but she’s desperate and horny and doesn’t care about anything except Eve. When Eve’s tongue makes contact with Oksana’s clit, she cries out, unable to keep any more noises in after her long stint of being silent on the field. Eve’s tongue laps up all the wetness that seeped out before she had even been touched and she moans at the taste that’s so unique to her girl. Her tongue eventually attaches to Oksana’s clit, knowing by now exactly how she likes it and where she’s sensitive and where’s too much. If Oksana’s moans are anything to go by, she’s doing a great job. 

“Inside, please.” Oksana pants out, holding Eve’s hair to keep her mouth against her clit. Eve gets the hint that this means she wants fingers inside, not tongue. 

Oksana loves to be filled. It’s something Eve didn’t explore much at first, after all, she can personally cum perfectly fine from clit stimulation alone. Penetration is just a bonus for her, not really an essential. However, Oksana seems to enjoy penetration equally as much as external play and Eve has no objections to indulging that. Eve remembers the deal they made, that whoever wins the most Golds gets to wear the strap-on tomorrow night, and it only makes her all the more determined to do well. She wants nothing more than to watch as Oksana’s little body takes her cock so well, becoming more and more pliant as she gets fucked so good. The nature of diving means that Eve has a particularly strong lower half, including her hips. She prides herself in her arm strength, able to finger fast and consistent, taking a while to even start getting tired. Her hip strength is even more impressive though, and the thought of showing Oksana just how good she can fuck her with the strap sounds like a dream. 

Eve inserts two fingers into Oksana’s entrance and immediately curls them up to the spot she can find effortlessly now. The addition of fingers makes Oksana’s thighs begin to shake, feeling so much pleasure at once. Her clit being sucked and licked at a heavenly tempo and her g-spot getting massaged by Eve’s hooked fingers, barely getting a seconds’ break before being hit again. Another finger is added in alongside the other two, sliding in effortlessly and getting slicked up with her wetness. Eve has other ideas though, as the third finger is swiftly removed and pressed against Oksana’s asshole. Eve looks up from where her tongue is still working, waiting on Oksana to give her some kind of permission to continue. When she hears a little “mhm” from her girl, Eve slides the finger in gently, meeting more resistance than she does from her other hole.

Oksana is a mess, head pressed back hard against the tree, probably getting soil and bark all over her freshly washed hair. Eve’s fingers know exactly how to manipulate her, making her all messy and slutty in a way she can’t help but love. She feels addicted to the feeling of Eve’s fingers and tongue and the way she looks up at her with a little smile and the way she’s digging her nails into Oksana’s thighs. Eve is her’s and her’s only. She wants to kill everyone Eve has ever slept with and anyone she will sleep with in future. What they have is theirs and she won’t let anything come between them. 

“I’m close, Evie.” Oksana purrs, grinding her hips up a little to thrust into her mouth, moaning as the unmoving finger in her ass in pushed out a little by her movement. 

Eve flattens her tongue and thoroughly licks Oksana’s clit in slow, long motions, bringing her right up to the edge. The fingers in her pussy give a particularly hard push to Oksana’s g-spot and she’s crying out as she cums. Eve feels more liquid than usual gushing out of her and dripping down her hand, watching in awe as Oksana squirts, unable to make any noise as her body spasms and shakes, completely reliant on Eve holding her up. When the initial shocks of her orgasm pass, she begins moaning softly, hips jerking every so often as she comes down from her high. Eve removes her fingers from Oksana’s holes and lifts them up to put them in her girl’s mouth, silencing her noises. Oksana hums around her fingers as Eve stands up and spanks her one last time for good measure. The intention was just for Oksana to clean her fingers up a little until they can make it back to the river where she can wash them properly, but Oksana seems to be overly enjoying it, attempting to suck and deepthroat them. 

“Was that good, baby?” Eve asks fondly, enjoying the way her face is suddenly softer and blissed out. She nods slowly, Eve’s fingers moving with her from where they stay in her mouth. “Can I get my fingers back?”

They make a popping noise as Oksana lets go of them and pecks Eve briefly on the lips before leaning down to grab her discarded underwear and shorts, now dirty and covered in dry leaves. “Thank you. Sorry I made you do that in public.”

Oksana’s a little shy now as she tends to get after orgasming. The difference this time is that they’ve never had afternoon sex and Eve doesn’t know how much she wants to talk on the way home. Usually, shy, hazy Oksana simply cuddles up and falls asleep, but this time they have six miles to walk and she’s yawning. It’s only 11:30am. 

“Need a nap.” Oksana huffs as she finishes pulling up her shorts and takes Eve’s hand as she leads them out of the forest. 

“We can get you a Red Bull back at the Village. Here take this,” Eve passes Oksana her water bottle which is three quarters full. “You’re bound to be thirsty after that.”

Oksana tries to protest against drinking Eve’s water, seeing for herself the beads of sweat on Eve’s forehead from the increasingly hot sun. They come to a compromise that they’ll share it. “I want to come to your semifinals today.”

Eve looks up at her as they find themselves back on the path they came on, hand in hand and slow paced this time. “No. You have practice. Don’t skip it.”

Oksana rolls her eyes. “I don’t need practice. I’ve practiced every day for like sixteen years. If I want to cheer on my girlfriend, I will.”

“Girlfriend?” Eve smirks, eyebrows raising a little. 

“Not girlfriend,” Oksana blushes, nervously smiling. “You know what I meant.”

They walk in silence for a few more moments before Oksana speaks up again. 

“Fuck it,” she starts, stopping in her tracks and turning to face Eve, squeezing her hand as she does. Hand squeezes seems to be their new thing. It’s affectionate and fond. Almost like an ‘I’m here, I love you’ type thing. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

Eve beams back at her. “Of course I will. I thought you’d never ask.”

It’s around 12:30pm by the time they make it back to the Village. They’re sitting on a bench in the Olympic Park as Oksana slurps on her second Red Bull of the day, feeling her previous sleepiness fade away with every sip. She’s eating from a little sandwich bag of red grapes that she got from the cafeteria. 

“Hey, Bill. I’m just phoning to ask what time we have to leave today?” Eve speaks into her phone, opening her mouth as Oksana tries to feed her a grape. 

“Alright, is it a minivan? Do you know how many seats there’s gonna be?”

(Oksana scrolls on her phone as she waits on Eve to finish her phone call, scrolling through some random Russian news articles. She wants to let Eve read the article titled, “Cat saves owner’s life by warning him of heart attack” before realising that Eve can’t read Russian and also hates cats.)

“Okay, perfect. We’ll see you soon!” Eve chirps as she hangs up the phone, excitedly turning to her girlfriend. “There’s extra seats in the van, you can come with us! They’ll sit you in the friends and family section which means you’ll get a good view. We’re leaving just after 1.”

Oksana smiles, thrilled to see her girl in action in a real life competition. She knows she’s going to cry with pride when she sees Eve diving, seeing the judges score her high and the crowd cheering for her. It’ll be cool to see Elena and Jess as well, considering she knows nothing about their diving styles or signature moves. 

“Are your friends okay with me tagging along?” she asks, never wanting to intrude on Eve’s personal time with friends. The last thing she wants is to be one of those girlfriends who demands attention at all times and doesn’t let Eve hang out with anyone else. She’s seen those types of girls in movies. 

“Of course! They love you. Elena and Jess haven’t shut up in the group chat about how cute and nice you are.” Eve tells her, opening up their chat to show Oksana all the messages, including a ‘tell her she’s welcome in our group anytime’ from Elena and a ‘look after her!’ from Jess. 

Oksana just blinks slowly as she reads the messages. People aren’t normally nice to her, especially not behind her back. Half of her brain thinks they’re tricking her. The other half is just relieved that she’s in with her girlfriend’s best friends and they approve of her. 

“Are they actually talking about me?”

“Yes, baby. They like you. The boys do too,” Eve reassures her, wrapping an arm round her. “You’ve never had many friends before, huh?”

Oksana shakes her head. “It’s kinda weird for me. Please, if they change their mind and decide they don’t want me around anymore just tell me. I won’t get offended. It’s really important for you to have alone time with your friends without me tagging along all the time.”

Eve kisses the top of her head and stands up, handing Oksana her crutches from where they stand against the side of the bench. “Come on, let’s head to the van early. Maybe some of the rest of the team are there already. Your ankle feels okay?”

“Yes. It doesn’t even hurt anymore. These crutches are stupid.” Oksana huffs. Objectively, a broken fibula does hurt. To anyone with an average pain tolerance, it should hurt. Oksana just genuinely doesn’t feel it. Maybe if she fell on it or something it might hurt more, but walking and running and training feels absolutely fine to her. She’s never known life without an injury for about sixteen years. She can handle this just fine. 

“Tomorrow is your last day of crutches. Once you get to the gymnastics venue tomorrow you never need to see them again. You’ve got this. One more day.” Eve reassures, knowing how much Oksana hates them and how much she grudges Eve for making her use them. They were doctor’s orders though, and Eve won’t let her argue with doctor’s orders. 

Oksana huffs again, feeling pathetic every time she hears the annoying little tapping noise they make on the concrete. One more day she reminds herself. One more day. 

As it turns out, Eve’s friends are happy to see Oksana after all. Elena pulls her in for a hug when she sees her and Jess compliments her eyebrows. Hugo greets her with a “there’s my girl!” and Kenny nervously shakes her hand and asks her if she’s excited to watch the dives. For obvious reasons, she’ll only watch the women’s semifinals and so Kenny explains some of the rules of women’s diving to her. He tells her how they award points and what each difficulty level entails. Oksana is truthfully really grateful for Kenny’s long winded explanations. All she knows about diving is that they jump off of a board into the water, so it’s helpful to hear about the scoring system and rules involved. 

As 1:15pm rolls around, they’re loaded into the minivan, with Oksana awkwardly greeting Eve’s coach, still holding a grudge against him for yelling at Eve two weeks ago. Oksana supposes that if he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have had a reason to talk to Eve. Maybe everything happens for a reason, so she cuts him a little slack. 

Oksana is sandwiched between Eve and Hugo in the back of the van, holding onto Eve’s hand and rubbing it soothingly with her thumb. Eve has gone quiet which is never a good sign. It means shes worried. 

“You okay?” she quietly asks Eve as the rest of her teammates fill the air with exuberant chatter. The engine roars to life and the driver begins reversing them out of the pickup area and onto the streets of Tokyo. “You nervous?”

Eve nods and places her head on Oksana’s shoulder, swooning when Oksana kisses the top of her head and stays there, resuming her calming strokes on the back of Eve’s hand. 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Oksana asks. Sometimes Eve just likes to be held without pep talks and all the inspirational shit. Sometimes she needs Oksana to be soft with her. Other times she likes to rant and let all her thoughts spill out. Oksana’s still learning how to comfort her, hoping that one day she won’t even need to ask, she’ll just instinctively know. 

“I always get nervous, I can’t help it.” Eve sighs, cuddling further into her girlfriend’s shoulder. 

“That’s okay. Nerves are good. Nerves mean you care,” Oksana replies, inwardly cringing at her words. What does that even mean? “Just think about how when it’s all over we can go get some good dinner. Do you like fancy pasta? Or steak? Thai food? Whatever you want, I’ll buy it for you.”

Eve smiles at her attempts to cheer her up. Her little ramblings are so unbelievably cute, with the power to make her smile no matter what. “Steak sounds good. But I’m paying.”

Oksana rolls her eyes. “Be quiet, my little superstar. Your sport has semifinals, mines doesn’t. That’s unfair for you. Call it reparations for your additional stress.”

“Don’t want to fail.” Eve tells her quietly with a sigh, voice trembling slightly. 

“You’re one of the top eighteen female divers in the whole world. That’s a crazy achievement on its own. Not to mention you got Gold last Games.” Oksana begins, stopping when Hugo interrupts her. 

“Eve’s also the oldest female diver in the competition. Could’ve retired ages ago but she’s still powering through it.”

Oksana smiles at this, kissing the top of her head again. “See? You’ve already achieved so much by just showing up. Who cares if you don’t make it through? There’s more to life than a Gold medal.”

“Oksana, did you know Gold medals aren’t even made of Gold? They’re just plated to look Gold.” Hugo adds, spewing his useless facts to yet another uninterested victim. 

“You hear that, Eve? You’re stressing over fake gold.” Oksana giggles, then proceeds to listen to Hugo’s other weird Olympics-related facts. Her hand squeezes Eve’s like it’s been doing all day, feeling warm inside when Eve returns the squeeze around three seconds later, the tremble in her fingers stopping when she does. 

After around ten minutes of idle chatter with Eve’s teammates, with a still silent Eve snuggled against Oksana, they arrive at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Oksana quickly learns that there’s a men’s pool and a women’s pool, hence the huge size of the building and the enormous lines of spectators wrapped around the outside. There’s so many more spectators than the gymnastics qualifier had and Oksana almost feels second-hand nervousness for the divers. It seems to be a much more popular sport than gymnastics, probably due to its short, punchy nature and easy to follow rules. 

“You okay?” Oksana asks again when Eve walks extremely slowly out of the van and towards the Aquatics Centre, contrasting against her excited teammates who are practically running excitedly to the entrance. Oksana’s crutches mean she can’t hold Eve’s hand and it makes her curse them even more. Her girlfriend’s face is drained of colour and she looks physically ill. 

“I’m fine. Sorry I’m not very talkative I’m just... thinking.” she responds wearily. 

“If you’re thinking of ways you might hurt yourself or fail, stop thinking.” Oksana tells her light-heartedly. They’re nearing the entrance now, with Eve having to walk a little faster to keep up with Oksana on crutches. “So tell me what to expect from the competition. Tell me everything.”

Eve smiles up at her, happy with the welcomed distraction. Kenny explained a lot already, but she’ll listen to Eve’s descriptions too. “So there’s eighteen female divers and eighteen male. You’ll be watching female obviously. We dive in backwards order of the preliminary results meaning I’ll go second last for every dive because I came second best in qualifiers.”

“So I have to sit through all the shitty divers before I see you?” Oksana giggles. 

“No one’s a shitty diver, it’s the Olympics, we’re all good...” Eve begins, trying to keep things positive and wholesome about her competitors. Her guise slips entirely though when she laughs, remembering how poor some of the preliminary divers were, thinking of poor Oksana having to sit through those today. “Okay, you’re right. Some people suck. It’s not that they’re bad divers they just do boring dives. You’ll see what I mean.”

Oksana laughs and nods, telling her that gymnastics is exactly the same in that sense. “So I’ll be bored, got it. What else?”

“I’ll tell you what the judges want to see so you can judge everyone on your own. It’s probably pretty similar to how gymnastics routines are judged. Our starting position, whatever it is needs to be perfect and straight. Some platform dives start with a handstand, you’ll see me do one of those, we need to be straight upright and not wobbly. When we walk to the edge of the platform we need to be smooth and concise, any pauses in weird places deduct points.”

Oksana nods as she tries to take in everything Eve says, excited to see how Eve herself matches up to these requirements. 

“Our take-off needs to be strong and balanced. Pretty much the milisecond we jump off we immediately go into twists and turns so a good height is always required. Also, if we fly too far left or right or too close to the board we get points deducted. In the air, we should obviously complete our rotations and revolutions accurately because that’s like, the whole point. Then, when we hit the water we want to make the tiniest splash possible. The straighter your body and quicker you swim downwards, the smoother your entry will be. Jess is like the master of smooth entries, hers are amazing. Entries are one of the hardest things to learn, mine still aren’t perfect after twenty three years.”

“Okay, got it. There’s a lot you need to remember, huh?”

“Yep,” Eve sighs. “As soon as we’re up the ladder we need to think about and control our every movement. There’s seven judges with eyes like hawks. They score us on 1-10 basis, they scrap the two highest and two lowest scores, and add up the three median scores. That sum is then multiplied by the difficulty level of the dive, usually between 3.0 and 3.8.”

“Sounds complicated. I can’t wait to see you in action. Seriously, I’m so excited.” Oksana buzzes as they finally make it to the entrance where the rest of the team and Bill are waiting for them. 

“Come on, lovebirds.” Hugo taunts with a whistle, holding open the entrance door so Oksana can hop through, thanking him as she does. 

The reception area of the Aquatics Centre looks pretty much exactly the same as the Gymnastics Centre did. There are huge Olympic rings on the walls, tons of random Japanese trinkets and paintings and a desk where an employee checks Team GB in. Eve explains that this year, the female semifinalists only represent six countries in total. China are normally the undisputed champions of diving with four divers in semifinals, followed by GB with three divers. In preliminaries, Eve was beaten only by a Chinese diver by a couple of points. There is an unspoken rivalry between the two of them, knowing that they’re both the superior competitors and only one of them is destined to get the Gold. Sure, there are two opportunities to win Gold in this event, with Golds being awarded for both 3m and 10m, but Eve’s strong suit has always been 10m and a Gold in that is all she asks for. Divers who excel at 3m are usually tall and lanky, like Hugo for example. 10m specialist divers are normally short and muscular like Eve. 

The team are led into a hallways with the end point being large changing rooms. It’s 1:40pm, twenty minutes before the event officially begins and the girls know this is where they need to say their goodbyes, pausing near the end of the hallway while the rest of the team head into their respective changing rooms. 

“You’ve got this, okay?” Oksana tells her softly, balancing her crutches against the wall and giving Eve a bear hug. “No matter what happens I’ll be so proud of you.”

“I’m nervous.” Eve whines meekly and hugs her girlfriend even tighter. 

“You’re not nervous,” Oksana responds, loosening their embrace so they’re facing each other. She places a finger on Eve’s chin, prompting her to make eye contact. “Repeat after me. I, Eve, am not nervous.”

Eve giggles but nevertheless, “This is so dumb. I, Eve, am not nervous.”

“I, Eve, am going to do my best like always.” Oksana continues, motioning for Eve to repeat after her again, smiling as she does. “And I, Eve, make everyone proud.”

Hearing the words come from Eve’s mouth, no matter how forced, warms Oksana’s heart like nothing else. Someday, she’ll get Eve to say all this on her own accord, but for now this is good enough. Oksana presses a kiss to Eve’s forehead and links both hands with hers. 

“You’re gonna smash it,” Oksana smiles, pride already beaming through her face at the thought. With her following words, she gives Eve’s hands a reassuring squeeze, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Eve confesses quietly, starting to feel her nerves replaced with the beginnings of excitement. “Thank you so much for even being here with me. God knows how you do it, but you calm me down so much. I’ll have to bring you to every competition from now.”

“Okay, go get changed,” Oksana tells her when a security guard motions them to move from where they’re standing. She presses a kiss to her head once more. “My little superstar, go show me what you’re made of. I’ll be cheering you on the whole time. Remember, you’re not nervous.”

“I’m not nervous.” Eve affirms, smiling brightly at her girl, stealing one last kiss on the lips before turning around to disappear into the changing rooms. 

The next boring three hours will go so much easier knowing that her girl is there to support her. Tonight, they have a fancy meal to look forward to on their second last night in Tokyo, drinking in every moment they have left with each other. They’re girlfriends now, so it’s highly likely that they’ll find a way to be together outside of the Games. From the start, their relationship has felt doomed, but now there’s a new hope for them. Neither of them know what this new hope means, but it’s palpable and ever-present and keeps them going strong. They’ll figure something out. 

Eve’s first three dives on springboard go exactly to plan, one forward, one backward and one inward. She maintains a lower level of difficulty in these dives, perfecting them and ensuring high points. There’s no use in trying to do some overly difficult dives and fuck them up, when perfecting easier dives will garner more points. On her fourth dive, a reverse 2 and a half somersault, she rushes her movements just a little bit too much, resulting in a sloppy flight and awkward entry into the water. It’s not the worst dive she’s ever done, still earning her 7s and 8s from the judges, but it normally goes a whole lot better in practice. With wavered confidence, she tackles her final twisting springboard dive, manoeuvring beautifully through the air and entering the water with optimal splash. All in all, she does really well, starting strong at the top of the leaderboard before slipping down to fourth place by the end. With twelve spaces in the springboard final, fourth place is still impressive, safely sending her to finals. 

Eve can breathe a little now. She made finals in her weakest area. At least if she fails her platform dives, she has springboard in the bag. As long as she doesn’t slip up tomorrow like she did today, she’s in the running for a bronze medal at least. A lot of the pressure is taken off her shoulders now, as the scores are announced and the divers sit down for a short break before platform semifinals begin. 

“Well done, guys!” Eve shouts to Jess and Elena as she makes eye contact with them, running over to pull them into a group hug. They came seventh and tenth place respectively, meaning they also made it through to finals. 

“Good job, Eve. See, you worried for nothing! You did so well.” exclaimed Jess, high fiving her when the hug breaks up. 

Eve quickly scans the crowd to find Oksana, quickly realising that it’s a lost cause trying to look for one girl among thousands of spectators. The crowd are still buzzing, excited from the event they just watched, waving their countries’ flags and chattering about the dives. Eve wonders if Oksana even understands the implications of Eve’s score. Surely, fourth place is universally a good thing in every sport, right? Surely she’ll know that Eve did well, but without the commentary that TV viewers benefit from, she may still be a little lost. 

Locating her duffel bag that was ditched somewhere on a bench in the changing room, she whips out her phone to text her girlfriend. There’s only a few minutes before platform semifinals begin, so she just types something brief.

Eve: i made it to springboard finals if you didn’t work it out already! platform starts soon which is more interesting, you’ll prefer watching these dives

Oksana: so proud of you!😄🐬❤️

An intercom announces that divers must return to the poolside, so Eve returns her phone to the pocket in her bag and makes her way back. She has a renewed confidence after doing well and knowing that her girl is proud of her. Eve knows that wherever her father may be, he’s looking down on her with pride too. 

Platform dives are usually more complex, with more airtime and room for divers to show the judges what they’re really capable of. Divers can show their personalities during platform and showcase iconic never-before-seen dives. There are less rules in platform than in springboard, with the only big rule being that at least one dive must be forward facing. Other than that, there are unlimited possibilities for dives. Eve’s eponymous Gold-winning dive is performed on platform, something she’s saving for last. 

This time around, all five of her dives go pretty well with no real fuck ups. There are a few wobbles on approach and slightly angled entries, but nothing to warrant any major point deductions. Every judge gives her 9s, 9 and a halfs, and 10s for her dives, giving her a high all round score. All in all, she comes second place, only three points behind the winner, the Chinese diver who snubbed Eve in London and who Eve snubbed in Rio. It’s an extremely close call, as it always is between them. During Championships, they always dominate the leaderboards for platform, never any more than ten points away from each other. They’ve spoken a few times out-with competitions, as much as the language barrier allows, and she’s actually a super nice girl. It’s just some healthy tension that is bound to exist between athletes. 

Eve can finally relax as semifinals draw to a close, having made both finals with pretty impressive scores all round. Deep down, she knew she’d be absolutely fine, she just gets stressed extremely easily. With finals tomorrow, she’ll still be a nervous wreck later tonight and tomorrow, it’s just how she is. If these semifinals were the finals, she’d be a silver medallist and she’d be over the moon with that. 

The audience are the first ones to leave the Aquatic Centre, save for the friends and family section who can be reunited with their loved ones after the event. Eve catches up with Jess and Elena who also made it to platform finals, all three of them literally jumping up and down with excitement. Elena came third in platform, making her the one to watch for a bronze medal in finals. Winning a medal in your first Olympics is what all first-timers aim for, and of all people, Elena deserves it most. Male divers have to complete a couple more dives than females do, meaning there’s a lot of waiting around to hear how Kenny and Hugo performed. 

Eve texts Oksana once again after having a quick shower and getting changed back into her Team GB t-shirt and black Adidas shorts, drying her hair off a little with a towel. 

Their reunion comes after the spectators of the women’s semis have all left. Eve texts Oksana a location to meet her (its next to a bench, further down on the same hallway they parted ways in.) and when she gets there, she almost knocks Eve to the ground with the force of her hug. Oksana’s squealing and littering hundreds of little kisses all over Eve’s damp hair and face and anywhere she can reach, crutches thrown off against a wall somewhere and forgotten about. 

“I am so so proud of you!” she squeaks, tears filling up in her eyes as they embrace tightly. “I knew you could do it, baby. You were so good.”

“Thank you,” Eve is blushing, not usually a fan of receiving compliments, but from Oksana it’s different. She knows they’re 100% sincere and not spiteful. “I made both finals, I’m still shaking, see?”

Eve holds her hands out to show Oksana the trembling, giggling when Oksana looks down and pulls her in for another hug. This makes it all worth it. Knowing Oksana and her team and Bill and her family are proud of her. Her diving career is most likely ending in the next few months and this is what she’ll miss the most. Making people proud of her. Oksana leans back to connect their lips, pushing Eve against a wall in excitement. Both girls are moving erratically, built up tension and anxiety being released all at once. They’re kissing in public with other athletes and coaches and employees walking past them by the hundreds, but they’re getting far too comfortable with PDA these days, so fuck it. 

When they pull away, they just take the time to take each other in for a moment, smiling with their teeth in genuine excitement, Oksana’s hands firmly around Eve’s hips. 

“Look at us,” Oksana beams. “Olympic finalists. We did it!”

The minivan doesn’t come until 6pm, leaving Eve and Oksana hyper for about an hour as they wait, sitting on the bench and talking about the competition and each other and what they’re going to do later and how proud of each other they are. They sound like two little kids who OD’d on blue Smarties, talking at 100 miles a minute and giggling at everything. The rest of Eve’s team are equally as manic, resulting in a chaotic drive back to the Village, singing and fighting and shouting like young siblings on a family road trip. As it turns out, Kenny and Hugo also made it to platform finals, with Kenny missing out on springboard finals by a couple points. It doesn’t bring him down though, it’s his first time passing a semifinal of any kind so he’s as buzzed as all the others. Bill is thoroughly impressed with all of them, taking time to give each diver individual compliments specific to their performance. 

“Do you guys want to go for dinner together?” Jess asks, turning around to face everyone from where she sits on the passenger seat. An assortment of echos of “yeah” and “sure” fill the car with Oksana shuffling awkwardly, hoping Eve remembers their plans and doesn’t double-book herself. 

“Oksana and I are going out for fancy food in Tokyo tonight, sorry guys. We’re sick of the healthy cafeteria shit,” Eve tells them, eliciting ‘aww’s from the girls and grumbles from the boys, who wanted them there. “We’ll send you pictures of our sirloin while you eat macro-tracked calorie-counted pasta for the fourteenth night in a row.”

“So are you guys like, boyfriend and girlfriend?” Hugo asks, pointing down at the way they’re holding hands in their seats. “Or just having sex?”

“Do you think I’d introduce you to her if it was just sex?” Eve scoffs, leaning over Oksana to hit Hugo on the leg. “Plus, we’re both girls if you didn’t notice. Girlfriend and girlfriend is the term.”

“So you’re girlfriend and girlfriend?” he asks, smirking as Oksana blushes. She’s never had a girlfriend in her life, and now she’s about to hear Eve say they’re together out loud. 

“Yes, we’re girlfriend and girlfriend.” Eve nods, squeezing Oksana’s knee as she does. Hearing Eve say it sends shivers down her spine and butterflies through her stomach. No shame, no subtext, no hesitation. Eve’s seems proud to call her her girlfriend. 

As the minivan pulls up to the drop-off area of the Olympic Village, the sun is already beginning to set, casting pink and yellow light over the sky. All six athletes are still reeling with excitement from the events of today, ready for a well deserved feast. They file out of the van, one by one, Eve taking Oksana’s crutches and holding them up for her to hold onto as she steps out. The Russian grumbles about having to use them, as always, but Eve just ignores her complaints. Doctor’s orders, after all. 

By 7:30pm, they’re in Shinjuku district in downtown Tokyo, walking (or in Oksana’s case, hopping) down a brightly neon-lit street, scouring for somewhere nice to eat at. They asked one of the Japanese receptionists in the front desk of the Village to call a cab for them, deciding Oksana’s questionable Japanese skills wouldn’t get them very far. As they walk down the fashionable district, Eve can’t help but wish they put a little more effort in to their outfits. It’s date night and they plan on going somewhere fancy, and they’re still in sportswear. They’ve never seen each other in anything else. 

“Are you getting dressed up for the Closing Ceremony tomorrow?” Eve asks, imagination running wild with the thought of Oksana in dressy clothes. It’s the one night of the Games where athletes actually make an effort. Makeup, hair, outfit, the whole thing. Of course, there’s still a sizeable portion of athletes who choose not to go all out, and Eve silently hopes Oksana isn’t one of those. 

Oksana nods. “Of course. Are you?”

“Yeah. It’ll be weird to see you wearing nice clothes. No offence. You probably feel the same about me.”

Oksana giggles, feigning offence. “What? You don’t find my Russian flag attire sexy? My three quarter length baggy shorts don’t turn you on?”

“You’d look sexy wearing a trash bag,” Eve tells her with an eye roll. She’s not even exaggerating, she genuinely believes Oksana could make anything look good. “I just want to see you looking all fancy in person.”

Oksana smiles. “I saw you dressed up in your Tinder pictures. If you look anything like that tomorrow you’ll get everyone’s attention at the afterparty. I’ll have to fight people off you.”

“Oh, please,” Eve scoffs. “If anyone’s getting attention it’ll be you. I’ll have to mark my territory before we go anywhere.”

“Oh yeah?” Oksana teases. “How would you do that? Maybe I’ll have to make you jealous for fun.”

A fancy looking steakhouse catches their attention, pulling them from their conversation. It’s a wooden building with black signposts outside and an outdoor seating area. Waiters wearing shirts and ties bring plates of food out, covered by a cloche like in movies. Theres a large printed menu by the door, written completely in Japanese which neither of them can read, however the prices are displayed loud and clear, converting to upwards of £100 for a two course meal. Before Eve can say anything about the price, the clicking of Oksana’s crutches indicate that she has entered the restaurant anyway and is waiting to be served. Eve often forgets that Oksana grew up wealthy and has extremely expensive tastes when it comes to these things. She doesn’t come across as a stereotypical rich girl, and after all, any wealth she currently has is amassed completely on her own from her gymnastics career. Still, it’s a whole other world to Eve, who never grew up poor, but always had to look after the things she had and understand the value of money. If Oksana is down to spoil her though, Eve won’t say no. 

“Table for two, please.” Oksana smiles at the waiter, talking in English in the hopes that he understands. She holds up two fingers as a backup, just incase he doesn’t, but his English reply of ‘Okay, follow me.’ indicates he does. 

The waiter leads them through the restaurant, a fancy, almost minimalist setup. The walls are beige with Hiragana characters painted in black on the walls. A large easily ten foot long fish tank is the focal point of the room, containing all sorts of shubunkin, comet and sarasa goldfish of impressive sizes. They are led through the restaurant to the back and up a flight of stairs, where the waiter takes them to an outdoor balcony seating area with an overhead view of Shinjuku, Mount Fuji just visible in the background. Both girls are stunned by the beauty of this place, hanging baskets of flowers above them and fairy lights dangling from the roof of the balcony. They sit down at a table closest to the wooden bars of the balcony, getting a full interrupted view of the district at night. 

Oksana orders some fancy, artisan wagyu ribeye while Eve settles for a humble filet mignon, definitely factoring in the slightly cheaper price when making her choice. They continue to talk all evening about everything that’s going on. The finals are tomorrow for both of them and the last day of the Games is tomorrow. Their relationship as they know it will change drastically over the next few days, and they’ll likely have to spend a little while apart before reuniting again. It’s going to be hard, but they’ll make it through. 

As they’re talking about Oksana’s retirement plans, Eve decides that now is a good time to discuss what she’s been thinking about since their mini argument this morning. Something about Oksana moving to London doesn’t sit right with her yet, feeling like Oksana should get a better feel of the city before settling there for good. After all, if they break up after she buys an apartment, she’s stuck there. Moving in together so soon is just asking for failure, so they need to find a compromise. Eve thinks she’s found one. 

“I have an idea. If you don’t think it’s good just tell me to shut up, okay?” Eve starts, tentatively watching as Oksana cuts up a little piece of her steak. “So you want to travel right? See all the cities you never got to properly explore?”

Oksana nods, smiling at the thought of it. 

“Well, what if I retired too?” she continues, not missing the way Oksana’s eyebrows shoot up at her words, not expecting her to come out with that. “We could travel together for a couple months. If we get sick of each other and break up, all we have to do is fly home and forget about it. If we haven’t killed each other after a couple months, we can pick our favourite city and move there together.”

Oksana’s face quickly morphs from shocked to excited, smiling and placing her elbows on the table (the first rule of fancy restaurant etiquette: don’t do that.) “Are you sure you want to retire? If you aren’t ready we can wait a little longer-“

“I’m thirty-two,” Eve laughs. “Most divers retire by like twenty-five. I’ve been putting it off for years. I’m getting too old for this now.”

“Your coach won’t be mad?” 

“No.”

“So are we doing it? Travelling together?”

“Yes.”

Both girls are buzzing with excitement again, barely able to sit still in their seats as they list cities and countries they want to go to. Oksana bids to show Eve around the best parts of Moscow, promising that she’ll love it. The Eiffel Tower is on the cards, with Eve never visiting it once despite taking three trips to Paris throughout her career. Oksana wants to hike and camp and ski, and Eve promises to teach her how to do all that stuff, pass on her Dad’s wisdom. 

(And Eve prays to God it works out for them. Prays to God this Honeymoon phase lasts forever, but she’s cynical enough after multiple failed relationships to know that love alone can’t always save a relationship. They’ll take it one day at a time as they always have. It’s the only thing that’s promised.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if u see me changing the number of chapters this fic has every single day no you dont❤️
> 
> man im a vegetarian why would i write a scene of them eating steak as if i know what that tastes like😭
> 
> as always thank u for all the nice comments they seriously make my day!! i reread them when im too lazy to write and they encourage me 
> 
> also id love to hear ur opinions on this: i have currently a few stories planned after i finish this one. the way i wanna do them is all in one chapter (so like 20-40k ish words all in one) and i know thats a super unpopular writing style in this fandom, u guys make everything chapters😭😭 so i guess what im asking is what is the max amount of words you like to read in one chap? and i can kinda work around that.
> 
> twitter: @astankovas_


	6. golden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> olympic villaneve: the duffel bag stays ON during sex
> 
> this is a long boy. we got olympic games, drunk villaneve singing to nossa nossa assim voce me mata, and cute ‘i love you’ sex with a strap (twice)

“I had a dream last night,” are the first words spoken by either girl on the day of finals. They’re in bed (Eve’s for once, a room Oksana has somehow never been in before last night. It’s nothing remarkable, exactly the same as her’s with a slightly different layout and smaller TV. The only real difference being that Eve’s teammates aren’t too shy to speak up about any noise complaints, whereas Oksana’s teammates just accept their fate, so they really did have to be quiet all last night. A lot of mid-fuck giggling and near-death pillow smothering ensued.) 

“Oh, God,” Oksana sighs in response to Eve’s ominous statement. “Let me guess, you were at your finals and a fire broke out in the Aquatic Centre and you burned alive until you were a cloud of ash? Or you jumped in the pool and there was a shark in it? Or I got murdered?” She’s very used to Eve’s morbid, traumatising dreams by now. They usually come to her at random times long after waking up, take Tuesday for example when mid-lunch Eve told her about her dream of finding an abandoned baby outside, before the baby was swiftly swooped up by a hawk. On Wednesday, she texted her in the middle of training, recalling her dream of running a puppy over in her car and having to see it’s little dead face. Dreams are never good news for her. 

Eve giggles and kicks the sheet off a little, sticking one leg out of the duvet to cool herself down a little. Their combined body heat will never fail to surprise either of them, equally comforting and stifling. “No. For once it was good. We were in another country, I think it was Thailand or something. I can’t remember much of what we did but we were so happy. There was this beautiful golden beach with palm trees and we were relaxing, no stress or responsibilities.”

Oksana just smiles and rolls over from her back to her side to wrap an arm around her girlfriend. “I’ll take you there for real. Will I add it to the list?”

Eve nods and cuddles up closer, still sleepy and soft. It’s around 6am, their usual wake up call, but this time it’s their last. Last like this, anyway. Tomorrow they’ll wake up together in the Olympic Village for the very last time before flying home to their respective countries for a little while. Oksana needs to figure out ‘childcare’ for her cat while she’s travelling and finalise some retirement and contractual business while Eve needs to catch up with friends and family in both England and America, taking some time to clear her head from the immense stress she’s been under. While it’s awkward and unconventional, part of them will always miss this routine. Waking up together, getting breakfast, separating for training before meeting for lunch, training together, eating dinner then cuddling and having sex. It’s comfortable and safe. In a setting as stressful as the Olympic Games, any sort of structure and pattern is welcomed. Eve regrettably finds herself worrying that maybe this regimen is all they have, and without it they’ll crumble. Maybe it’s a case of two horny, yearning, cooped up lesbians with nothing better to do than fall for each other. Maybe out in the real world Oksana will discover new possibilities and ventures that don’t involve Eve. And, if it makes her girl happy, Eve will have to suck it up. 

“It’ll be weird, not being here,” Eve muses, looking around the barren, clinical room with no hint of character or comfort. “Like, even dumb things like sleeping in something bigger than a double bed. We’ve never done that. We’ve never even seen each other in normal clothes. I’ve never cooked for you or listened to music with you. We haven’t established who’s the better driver and who’s so bad they’re gonna get us killed. All these regular couple things are new for us. We have so many firsts ahead of us. I just hope you still like me in the real world.”

“It’s exciting! We have so much to look forward to and memories to make and inside jokes to discover. Less of the negativity, you know I’m in deep with you. We already agreed that we never felt this way about anyone before. We’ll be fine, and even if not, we had fun while it lasted,” Oksana has started her rambling again. Eve swoons at how cute it is, tripping up on her words sometimes, accidentally slipping into Russian before correcting herself, mind working so hard to get the right words out. “Your problem, Eve, is you think too much. About yourself, how you’re perceived, the future, me. Everything. Just relax and live in the moment more, if there’s one thing you learn from me I want it to be that. Of course I’ll still like you.”

And Eve believes her. Trusts her fully. 

“I get to see you dressed up today, huh?” Oksana leans forward to kiss Eve’s cheek where it’s staring at her, unable to stop herself, nuzzling her face into Eve’s neck afterwards. “Dress, jumpsuit or pantsuit?”

“Dress. What about you?” Eve replies, feeling Oksana’s cheeks rise up into a smile from where she’s nestled. 

“So I get to see you all femme, interesting. I’m wearing a dress too. A little slutty number might I add. Short, boobs out, whole thing,” she explains with a breathy laugh, literally able to sense Eve’s jealousy without seeing her face, just by the slight tensing of her body. It feels good to know Eve is possessive of her, in a weird kind of way. “Remember I didn’t plan on leaving here with a girlfriend.” Oksana pokes at Eve’s tummy teasingly. 

“I told you, all eyes will be on you,” she remarks with an eye roll, flipping onto her side to face Oksana, taking in her features. It’s dark in the bedroom with the sun only just beginning to rise and Oksana is still pliant from sleep, lips puffy and eyes heavy. Never has someone looked so cute and pretty twenty minutes after waking up. Judging by the way her girlfriend is equally drinking her in, Eve guesses she probably thinks the same thing. “I’ll have to look after you all night, make sure no one tries to steal you.”

Oksana just giggles a little, giving an intrigued little “oooh” as Eve speaks. She’d try to disagree, but never has she ever had trouble getting any sexual partner she wants. To act like she doesn’t know she’s desirable would be a facade. Instead, she asks the question she’s been trying to figure out since she met Eve, “Do you drink?”

It’s often a touchy subject for athletes. Alcohol is just one of those individual preferences each professional athlete needs to decide for themselves, with probably half choosing to abstain. It’s a dehydrator, high in calories and weakens the immune system, making it harder to fight injury - not to mention drunken falls and hangovers. It’s an unspoken rule that whatever the athlete chooses is completely up to them. Peer pressure for those who don’t or shaming those who do will never happen in the Olympic Village. It’s all personal to each individual and everyone accepts that. 

“Yeah,” Eve nods. “Not at all during Championship season, but outwith I do. I have Ciroc for tonight, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Okay, good. I brought Moët and tons of Grey Goose.” 

Getting drunk with Oksana was never something Eve had ever thought about prior to this, assuming that she probably doesn’t drink as she never mentioned it. Now though, all these new ideas are flooding her brain. Guards completely dropped, having fun and being messy with her girlfriend and best friends. Sounds like the perfect way to end the Games. Eve, although she has settled down over the last few years, has always been a party girl. She can outlast every other member of her diving squad, is a self-confessed lightweight and always wakes up with ominous injuries she can’t remember, indicative of a good time. Never having to buy her own drinks back home, be it through romantic interest or sport recognition, she is known for getting wrecked every weekend off-season. It’s a sharp contrast against Eve during on-season, who panics and stresses and hyper-fixates on her dives and never lets her hair down for a second. 

“I bet I can outdrink you.” Eve states competitively, wiggling her eyebrows a little at her girlfriend. 

“Game on.”

And with that, Oksana leans in to kiss her properly, because of course she does. 

(By 6:30am, Oksana is knuckles deep inside of Eve, praying to a God she doesn’t believe in that this might work out for the both of them. If she has to give any of this up she won’t know what to do with herself. Hearing Eve’s hushed little breaths, whispering sweet nothings into her ear and feeling her clench around her fingers is fucking intoxicating and she’ll die without it.)

Breakfast consists of yogurt and some shitty healthy granola that tastes like rocks, no single hint of flavour. Everyday, the cafeteria gets less and less busy, with the majority of athletes having already competed and choosing to stay in fancier luxury hotels until the Closing Ceremony. It’s the final day of Tokyo 2020, with the only remaining events being Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, Men and Women’s Platform and Springboard Diving and Men and Women’s Running. USA is topping the leaderboard, followed by China, followed by Russia, which was kind of to be expected. Those three nations are consistently high performing every Games, mainly just due to having the highest quantity of athletes. The Olympics are always celebrated by individual merit, though. Countries, although they may win the most medals, can’t “win” the Olympics. It’s all about cultural exchange and pride and motivation. Countries from all around the world can show off the peak of sportsmanship their nation has to offer, regardless of wealth or development or conflict. Kids around the globe can be inspired by the athletes they see on TV and have a goal to aim for. In that sense, every single athlete involved leaves a winner, medal or no medal. 

“You’re anxious.” Oksana states matter-of-factly as she shovels another scoop of yogurt coated gravel into her mouth, clearly noticing that Eve is staring into space, lost in thought. 

“Of course I am.” is all she can reply as her knee bounces frantically under the table, nerves starting to get the better of her once again.

Diving finals begin pretty early, starting at 11am. Women finish significantly quicker than men do, with twelve less dives to get through, so it makes for a fairly short competition with only sixty dives showcased on platform and sixty on springboard, lasting no more than five seconds each. With the twelve best female divers competing for three medals, there’s a one in four chance of Eve getting one. That’s all she asks for. A bronze, even. Eve finds that earlier competitions with less waiting around normally work better for her, with less time to work herself up in her own head. It’s no surprise though, that Eve is a nervous wreck nonetheless. This is the big day. She could leave Tokyo more decorated than she already is, with the potential to turn her existing five medals into seven medals. If she retires today, this is her last chance.

“You worried yesterday and you did perfect anyway, I hate seeing you stressed out,” Oksana places a hand on top of Eve’s and squeezes a little, feeling the trembling as she does. She gives Eve a reassuring smile. “It’s the last time either of us have to compete, alright? We’ll go out with a bang then never have to think about any of this again. Once we compete today, it’s just you and me and we can relax forever. Be excited about that, don’t focus on anything else.”

“Aren’t you nervous? Your finals start at 11 too and you keep skipping your training. You have more right to be nervous than I do.”

Oksana shakes her head and laughs breathily. “I’m so fucking excited, you have no idea. This is my last ever day of gymnastics. I could fall flat on my face and break every bone in my body and still be thrilled that I never have to do this again. Maybe I’ll finally get to experience life without having the body of a grandma. I’ll be able to eat whatever I want and not care if I gain weight and I can finally have days where I stay in bed the whole time. I can get a real job and experience all these firsts.”

“Retirement has been a long time coming for you, huh?” Eve asks with a smile, drinking in her girlfriend’s beaming face and excited words and positive energies. 

“Since starting gymnastics when I was like five, I can probably count my days of missed training on two hands. Even if it was yoga or running or weightlifting, I’ve spent nearly everyday of my life doing some sort of practice. It’s going to feel scary leaving all this,” she points to the crutches propped up against the side of their table. “But on the bright side, I’ll never have to use these again after today.”

Eve’s phone is going off like crazy, buzzing every couple seconds to the point that she can’t ignore it anymore. It’s the Team GB group chat, ranting about their excitement and nerves and what they’re wearing tonight and how they want to spend their last night in Tokyo. Part of Eve feels bad that she pretty much abandoned her team for the entirety of the trip, only really seeing them at diving practice, but they understand and they approve of Oksana, so it’s not really a big deal. When they start making plans of where they’ll meet before heading to the Aquatics Centre, Eve figures she better get involved and join their meeting too, even if it means spending a little less time with her girlfriend. They have their whole lives ahead of them to stay together, in theory, so they’ll make up for it. 

Saying goodbye to Oksana for the last time before finals stings more than it should. They exchange kisses and embraces and comforting words and promise to text and call each other but something about it feels bittersweet. Deep down she knows she’s fine and no matter the outcome, she’ll be proud of herself. There’s no sense in worrying all day when she could be getting hyped up for Oksana’s inevitable gold win or the plans they have for the near future. But Eve and sense never exactly go together. Finals are the last hurdle they have to get over now, and no amount of nerves will stop them jumping over it and into freedom. 

“I love you. I’m proud of you. You’ve got this.” are the words echoing in Eve’s mind in a thick Russian accent as the minivan drives Team GB out of the Olympic Village. 

The pit of Eve’s stomach aches with anxiety, lips torn apart from where she physically can’t stop chewing at them and her right knee is eternally bouncing up and down to release some nervous energy. She has been in this exact position for the last two days, driving to the Aquatics Centre to show off her skills to a waiting audience. Skills she knows she has perfected and is confident with. Preliminaries and semis were a breeze and there’s no reason that finals won’t be too, but the mounting pressure crushes down upon her with every turn of the van’s wheels and it feels like she’s suffocating in her seat. 

Her Mom back home in America will be awake right now, fighting the urge to sleep to see her baby on TV, despite how late it is over there. Her friends in the UK will have alarms set for 3AM to wake up and watch her dive, hanging on to hope that she comes back with a medal. The kids she teaches lessons to will wake up bright and early in the morning, run to their parents and find out if their teacher got Gold again. Future Olympic diver kids from around the globe who look up to her will be sitting patiently in front of the TV screens to see how she performs. If some sort of afterlife is real, her Dad will be looking down upon her with pride, hopefully just happy to see her happy. 

Her team are babbling nonsensically as usual, talking about anything and everything as the excitement and nerves rush through them as well. Bill is giving a pep talk from the passenger seat, giving last minute quick-fire advice regarding their form and their attitude and their presentation, the team trying desperately to take in every single word he says. The only words Eve cares about are Oksana’s sickeningly positive, albeit sometimes confusing pep talks. (When Oksana told her “neither down, nor feather.” which apparently means good luck in her language, she couldn’t believe that Eve had never heard of her weirdly-translated proverb before. Everyday proves to be a new learning curve in their unconventional, international relationship.) 

_Once we compete today, it’s just you and me and we can relax forever._

The reaffirming words reverberate in her brain, calming her down in the way a breathing exercise would. As they make it to the Aquatics Centre and pile into the check-in area, Eve is hypnotised by the memory of Oksana’s voice and words and wants for nothing more than to be wrapped up safe in her arms. They’re ushered into the hallway where they were seperated last time, memories of Oksana nearly knocking her over with excitement on their reunion and making out with her against the wall like no one else could see them. The excitement and joy and pride that Oksana expressed towards her felt like nothing else on Earth and Eve knows she needs to go all out this competition, even if just to see Oksana react like that again. 

They’re given a five minute warning before finals officially start and Eve uses this time to hurriedly text her girl and wish her luck on her own finals. She’s only half surprised when she unlocks her phone to a string of messages already from her. 

Oksana: good luck!!  
Oksana: love u so much❤️  
Oksana: we’ve got this😁

And she’s right. They have got this.

Eve: i love you, good luck❤️

First up are springboard finals as normal. As Eve climbs the ladder for her first dive, she resigns herself to her fate. There’s no backing out now and once she’s up there, there’s only one way down. She starts with a forward two and a half pike somersault with two twists. It’s the hardest dive in her springboard repertoire, figuring it’s easiest to get that out of the way first so the rest is smooth sailing. She does good, garnering mostly 9s from the judges, losing out on a slightly angled water entry that, to a non diver, would be fully unnoticeable. Judges are strict, though, and she won’t get away with even the slightest bend in her form. It’s fine. Nothing to worry about. She’s not worried. There’s nothing to worry about. Except there must be, because as she makes her way up the ladder for her second dive she thinks she’s about to shit herself on site, shaking so much that she has to jump off the board without taking a moment to collect herself, worried that if she doesn’t just jump, she’ll fall. And it’s fine. She scores just as high as her first dive. She’s not watching the leaderboard because she physically can’t. She doesn’t want to know. She’ll perform her dives then head the fuck back to her girl to celebrate her inevitable Golds, maybe scraping a bronze for herself at best. Her bronze can hang by the mantle in her house until she grows old and get passed around by the grandkids on Christmas. It’s not a big deal. There’s nothing to worry about. 

Her next two dives go just as fine. Mediocre even. The crowd screams and applauds and rises to their feet whenever Eve sticks her entries but the racket is drowned out when she’s under the water. All she can focus on is getting through this, moving on autopilot, hoping and praying that she doesn’t miraculously forget how to swim and end up drowning in the pool. She feels like an outsider in her own body, as if she’s standing in the stalls as a spectator watching someone who looks like her perform her dives. It’s a blur. She doesn’t talk to her teammates or her coach, just waits glazed eyed and disorientated, running on adrenaline. She climbs the ladder, does her dive, dries her face and heads to the decompression jacuzzi. Over and over she repeats this routine, legs motorised and brain disconnected. 

Her final dive goes as smoothly as she could hope for. It’s a backwards pike somersault with two and a half twists. She gets good height off the board and puts every ounce of effort she can muster into throwing herself backwards in a tight spin, straightening up and twisting her body, hitting the water at as close to a 180° angle as humanly possible. Even in her dazed, confused state, she knows that was a good one. Maybe a silver might be in her grasp at this point. There are three divers following her, an Italian girl and two Chinese girls, the three of them pretty much known as the champions of springboard. Eve would be lying if she said she paid attention to a single dive that any of the others performed. Even Elena and Jess’ dives were lost on her. 

As she swims out of the pool and heads to the jacuzzi for the last time, she’s intercepted by Bill who pulls her in for a hug right off the bat, taking no notice of the water from Eve dripping all over him. 

“Amazing job,” he tells her, beaming with pride. “You’re in the lead by twenty points, you really have a chance here. These girls need at least 81s and 82s to catch up to you. You did so well. That’s a silver, easily.”

Eve follows him as he guides her to a chair along the back wall where Jess and Elena are already sitting, having already showcased all their dives. They pull her into a group hug as soon as they see her, telling her how well she did and how proud they are. Eve’s head is gone, feeling dizzy and shocked and nervous and excited. She doesn’t know what’s going on. Springboard is her weakest area and here she is in the lead. In London and Rio she won bronzes on springboard, however on both occasions they were overshadowed by her silver or gold on platform. This time, she has the chance to not get overshadowed by anything. She can relax on platform and not have to worry about bettering herself. How can the best get any better? 

Eve watches anxiously as the last three divers showcase their final dives. The Italian girl slips a little on takeoff and it messes up the rest of her dive, feet in the wrong position and balance unsteady. Eve remains in first place. Next comes the first of the Chinese girls, attempting a significantly lower difficulty dive in hopes of perfecting it and earning high that way. China have the best coaches and venues and training regimens and are always high scorers. If you lose out to a Chinese diver, it’s nothing personal. Just like if you’re an artistic gymnast and you lose out to Oksana Astankova, it’s nothing personal. You did everything you could and that’s more than enough because they’re just better than everyone else and that’s alright. 

When the first Chinese diver doesn’t land as high a score as she needed to overtake Eve, Elena squeezes her hand and Jess pulls her into a hug. Eve’s getting silver. No matter what happens in the rest of the competition, Eve’s walking away with one silver. And that’s all she could ask for. Bill walks over to where she’s sitting and pulls her up to stand next to him, enveloping her in a tight hug as they watch the final diver ascend the ladder, never letting go of each other for a second. Eve hears Bill whispering little “come on, come on, come on”s as the diver travels to the edge of the board, jumping three times before taking off. Her dive looks fucking perfect from their angle, twisting and somersaulting expertly. The splash in the water indicates a bad entry position though, and Bill squeezes her as the judges take a moment to count up her final score. 

It’s a 79.4. And Eve is smothered in a tight group hug, Elena and Jess cheering and screeching and jumping up and down and she swears there’s a tear falling from Bill’s cheek. She got gold. She’s a two-time gold medallist. The other divers rush over to congratulate Eve, women she has never even spoken to kissing her on the cheeks and hugging her, telling her how inspiring she is. If competing was a blur, this is a fog. Eve can’t even remember how to stand up straight, thankful for all the wet, foreign bodies holding her up. Elena and Jess’ screaming is drowned out by the tunnelling of her eardrums, only able to hear ringing and vague commotion as she focuses all her energy on not throwing up. 

She’s swept off to the side after a few minutes by Bill, who leads her to a couple interviewers who ask her questions like “What’s going through your head right now?” and “How hard did you have to work to get to your position?”. She’s media trained so she knows exactly what to say to each reporter, words coming out before she can even process them, mind occupied by more important questions of “What the fuck?” and “Is this real?”. Post-win interviews are never very long, just short clips the Olympic Channel can post on their Twitter and Instagram feeds to appease fans. Well aware that Eve is still wet, in a cold arena, in a swimsuit and starting to shiver, Bill thanks the reporters and ushers her to go get dressed for pictures while the podiums are set up and medals are gathered. 

Jess and Elena are once again hyping Eve up as she joins them in the dressings rooms, texting excitedly into the group chat to let the boys know that “Eve won gold in springboard!!” “She did so well!!”. They’re still in their swimsuits, with no reason to change. Platform finals start in just twelve minutes so there’s no point for them. With shaking hands, Eve retrieves her own phone from her duffel bag. It’s vibrating like crazy as friends from home text her and acquaintances from high school and ex-coworkers write on her Facebook wall and strangers on Twitter blow up her notifications. There’s even a missed phone call from her ex-fiancée. She’ll ignore that one. Her phone almost crashes when she unlocks it, freezing every couple of seconds from the sheer madness. There’s no message from Oksana though, understandably as she’s still in her own finals, probably also winning Gold at the same time as Eve. She doesn’t have much brain capacity for typing or rational thoughts right now. Her text to Oksana contains none of their regular pleasantries or pet names or exclamation marks or emojis or sense. 

Eve: got gols

She doesn’t even spell it right. And she knows that. But her brain won’t let her go back and fix it so she presses send and hopes that Oksana can understand anyway. She’ll bully her for this later. It’s fine. 

Eve changes into her Union Jack tracksuit, still wearing the wet swimsuit underneath and is ushered alongside the two Chinese divers to make her way back to the poolside to recieve their medals. Eve stands in the middle on the highest podium, with the runner ups on either side of her on variably lower podiums. Each of them bow as a member of the International Olympics Committee places the surprisingly heavy medals around their necks and shakes their hands, warmly congratulating them. The medals are strung by white and red ribbon, Olympic rings and Japanese cultural symbols incorporated into the design. Eve waves excitedly at the cheering crowd, paying close attention to the group of GB flags in one corner of the audience. They pose for the photographers individually and together, posing for both smiling pictures and the quintessential biting-of-the-medal pictures. 

The top three divers are then swept off to get changed into their swimsuits again in preparation for the platform finals, the Chinese divers congratulating Eve in very broken English and Eve thanking and congratulating them in very broken Chinese, pulling them both into a hug, to the delight of the photographers looking for the perfect shot. 

Platform finals are infinitely less stressful now. Eve has her gold, she can go back home happier than ever, content that even if she comes 12th place in platform, she came 1st in springboard. Oksana is literally going to combust with pride when she reads Eve’s message, and that’s the thought that keeps her going as she ascends the ladder to complete her first platform dive. There’s no bounce on platform like there is on springboard, meaning it’s harder to propel yourself up into a decent height on takeoff which is one of the main reasons judges dock points. Eve is tiny though, standing just shy of 5’1 and made up almost entirely of muscle, so she can bounce and coast through the air like it’s nothing. Her first dive earns her almost 100 points, just shy of a perfect ten score from every judge. She’s still reeling and excited from her previous win, relaxed as the pressure is lifted from her. She really is just focusing on having fun now, but with a starting round as impressive as that, she’s determined to keep up her winning streak. 

Her next two dives go relatively smoothly. She makes a few minuscule slip ups that only a professional, seasoned diver would ever take notice of, but points are deducted as appropriate. She benefits from performing higher difficulty dives in platform, giving her slightly more wiggle room to mess up a little. The overall median points are multiplied by the difficulty score, so what Eve loses in deductions, she makes up for with her difficulty. She’s second overall in the leaderboard until she performs her third dive, which bumps her up to first place. There’s no way in hell she expects to stay there but it feels good nonetheless. 

With the fourth round complete, she’s back to second place, only a couple points behind the Chinese diver she narrowly beat in springboard. It looks more and more likely that she’ll be awarded a silver, potentially taking home two medals instead of one. On the off chance that she dives particularly well in the fifth round and her opponent dives particularly poorly, she could potentially get another gold, but she isn’t too hung up about that. Bill shoots her a thumbs up as she exits the pool and heads towards the jacuzzi, catching up with her to tell her she’s doing a good job and let her know how the leaderboard is currently looking. Eve doesn’t pay attention to other divers while she’s competing unless they’re directly threatening her eligibility for a medal. That’s why, when Bill tells Eve that Elena is currently in third place, gearing up for a bronze, she’s thrilled and surprised. Not in Elena’s ability, of course, she’s one of the greatest divers Eve has ever seen. It’s just exciting and unexpected for a first-time Olympian to win a medal and Eve hopes and prays that Elena does. She’d happily let Elena snub her out if it came to it. 

“If you perform as well as your first dive in the final round, you’ll sweep. You’ll take home both golds. I know you have it in you, okay?” Bill playfully pushes her arm from where he squats next to the jacuzzi. Eve nods and takes a deep breath as she’s ushered to climb up the ladder for the final time. 

Her approach is stylish and strong, probably the best she’s done in the competition thus far, and it puts her in exactly the right mindset for her final dive. Her eponymous dive. It’s what all the journalists and diving fanatics and judges want to see from her. She’s even adapted it to incorporate yet another seemingly impossible half-twist, switching it up a little from Rio. She starts with a toe touch with her back facing the pool. She takes a few strong, full inhales and exhales, mindful not to pause for too long, before launching herself backwards into a somersault, twisting her body round extremely elegantly five times, an increase from four and a half in Rio. Managing to straighten herself up adequately, she enters the water with minimal splash and initiates a fast swim, pulling her legs into the water with her body. She can even hear the cheers from underwater, feeling the atmosphere in the room shift as she makes history once again, improving an already impossible dive that only she can perfect. Rising out of the pool and taking a deep breath, she smiles in awe at the noises from the audience, everyone standing and cheering her on. The judges award her a 100.3, placing her well ahead of her competitors, waiting only on the final Chinese diver to showcase her final dive. 

Eve rushes to pull Bill and her teammates into a hug. Elena is already crying from almost certainly bagging a bronze and now she’s overcome with even more emotion after Eve performs another gold-worthy dive. Bill has never been more proud of his girls in his life. Even Jess bagged a fourth place title, higher than she ever has before, beating out iconic one-to-watch Malaysian and Italian divers for the spot. They watch the final diver approach the edge of the platform, pulling out an impressive backwards two and a half somersaults with two twists, but the difficulty level isn’t on the same level as Eve’s. 

The judges score her 81.6 and Eve is almost crushed in a group hug all over again, immediately bursting into tears and standing there in shock once again. Another fucking gold. Two golds. They call it a sweep, when a diver wins all the dives they perform in and it’s pretty unheard of in women’s diving. It’s never happened during Eve’s lifetime, anyway. But here she is, standing in this crowd of people, balling her eyes out as she hugs Bill tighter than she’s ever hugged anyone, getting his tracksuit soaking wet from pool water and tears as other divers join the pile-on behind her. 

She’s never felt this level of glee and pride and disbelief, reduced to a sobbing mess. This is exactly what she has worked for since she was a little girl. All the times she couldn’t master a dive on the 1m as an eight year old, persisting all day until her Dad drove her home in a sulk, all the times she had to skip cool high school parties in favour of competitions as a sixteen year old, all the relationships she abandoned and injuries she received and fears she had to overcome. They all lead her to this very moment, and she doesn’t regret a single thing. 

All the other divers eventually head back to the changing room to get changed after congratulating and kissing and hugging Eve, leaving only her and Bill after a few minutes. They’re both crying and hugging and the fourteen years of them training together has all amounted to this. 

“Bill,” Eve squeaks out from where her chin rests on Bill’s shoulder, her first vocalisation since winning her second gold. “I’m retiring now.”

Bill chuckles and slowly rubs her back, overcome with pride and admiration for the woman he nurtured from a shy, humble eighteen year old into a competent, strong thirty-two year old. “I don’t blame you. You deserve this more than anyone. I’ve loved working with you, you make me so so proud.”

“Thank you so much,” Eve exhales strongly through a sob. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

And it’s official. She’s no longer a competitive diver and she’s ending her career on the high note of all high notes. Now she can live out the rest of her life how she wants, exploring the world with her girlfriend and working out the rest as they go. She literally couldn’t ask for anything more. 

Oksana doesn’t text her. Like at all. Not a single peep. Her understanding of gymnastics finals is that there are four apparatus finals and an all-round final consisting of all apparatuses. Oksana is only taking part in one apparatus final (uneven bars) and the all-round. In theory, Oksana should be done by now, or at the very least had a moment of downtime to text her. 

It’s not until Eve is back in the Olympic Village, adorning two gold medals around her neck, strolling through a lounge to get to the cafeteria, that she sees the gymnastics finals are playing on one of the flat-screen TV live feeds. She rushes over to one of the sofas in front of it, squinting her eyes to search for Oksana but she isn’t anywhere to be seen on screen. There’s a Romanian girl showing off her floor routine, and Eve doesn’t know shit about gymnastics or floor routines but she knows that this girl is boring as fuck compared to Oksana. Her background music is some overdramatic Mozart staccato and she’s focusing more on dancing than tumbling. At least if Eve knows one thing, it’s that Oksana will for sure beat this girl, if she’s even competing in this round, that is. 

Eve pulls up Twitter and searches up her girlfriend’s name, hoping for any sort of indication of how she’s doing or what she’s up to. For all Eve knows, she could be dead in a ditch somewhere. She audibly sighs with relief and joy and pride when she sees a tweet posted two hours ago that reads, 

_Russia’s Oksana Astankova takes home Artistic Gymnastics gold in Women’s Uneven Bars final_

Her eyes begin to well up as she reads the comments, all praising her greatness in various languages, calling her the best gymnast of all time and an inspiration to everyone. They’re both gold medallists. It feels fucking surreal. They’re going to crush each other to death when they reunite. 

Eve is pulled from her thoughts when she hears a familiar name from the commentators and familiar floor music and Oksana is on TV, beginning to show off her routine. It looks even more spectacular from above, her tumbles and spins and flips looking so elegant and stylish, travelling around the entirety of the floor like she owns it. Her drops and landings are perfectly punctuated by her music, every single movement planned and in exactly the right place at the right nanosecond. She reaches insane heights on her somersaults, a skill Eve knows first hand is hard as fuck to master. Oksana’s seriously as close to superhuman as they come. It’s like she was made to be twisting and tumbling 6ft above ground, showcasing all the skills she has perfected over the years. The fact that she can do all this with a fractured ankle too absolutely blows Eve’s mind, admiring her like she’s never admired anyone in her life. She can’t believe this majestic, otherworldly creature is actually hers. Oksana ends her routine with her signature salto into front splits in perfect timing with the final beat of the track and the crowd go wild for it, cheering and waving flags and giving her a standing ovation. 

They do a closeup of Oksana as she pulls her coach in for a hug and Eve swears she sees tears in her girl’s eyes. Happy tears. Not like the tears of pain and neglect in Rio. Her whole aura is happy and relaxed and proud as she tries to catch her breath, chugging her water then fidgeting with the tape job on her hands. There’s some shuffling around as the loudspeaker announces something in Japanese and the camera stays fixed on Oksana, staring up nervously at the leaderboard and holding hands with her coach. When the final results are announced, Oksana smiles so wide, jumping into her coach’s arms as he picks her up and twirls her. Her teammates rush over to hug her and congratulate her and the commentator over on Eve’s TV announces that she’s the winner of the all-round. Eve’s crying on the sofa, so so proud of her girl, unable to take her eyes away from the screen. All she wants is to hold her so tight and never let go. This is the happiest day of both of their lives. And Eve’s crying in public again. 

Eve watches as Oksana is ushered onto a podium just as she herself was hours prior, leaning down to receive her second gold medal of the competition. The gymnastics medal-receiving is a little different though, in that all three winning gymnasts turn to their left and face some slowly rising flags on the left wall. There’s a Russian flag in the middle with a Romanian and Chinese flag staggered on either side, representing the silver and bronze winners. Oksana has her hand on her heart as the Russian National Anthem plays out of the speakers. She’s visibly crying now, unable to stop the tears from flowing and her smile from beaming as she sings along like the patriot she is. Eve is so so fucking proud of her. 

It’s around 4pm when Eve gets a phone call from Oksana. A phone call she’s been anticipating with bated breath. 

“You got gold?” Is Oksana’s opening shriek, obviously reeling from just reading Eve’s message. 

“Two golds!” Eve replies, equally excited. “Where are you? Are you back at the Village yet?”

“Holy shit, Eve. I’m so proud of you! I knew you could do it. You can tell me all about it in person, I got two as well,” just hearing Oksana’s voice is making Eve melt into a puddle and she doesn’t know what she’ll do when she finally sees her. Well, she does know. She’ll burst into tears and squeeze her til there’s nothing left. “I’m like two minutes away from the Village, can you meet me? We’ll be pulling in at the drop-off area behind the gymnastics buildings.”

Eve looks around to process her bearings, calculating in her head how far away she is from where Oksana wants to meet. It’s like a ten minute walk, she decides, but she’s an athlete for a reason and athletes can run fast. 

“Okay, I’m literally gonna run there,” Eve giggles through the phone, and when Oksana hears the chaotic rustling and heavy breathing on the other end, she knows Eve isn’t kidding. “I’ll see you in two minutes baby, I love you.”

And with that, the phone line cuts out and Eve is dramatically running through the Village to meet Oksana. It’s ridiculous, she could always just walk and be a couple minutes late. But she’s excited. And Oksana is Oksana. And all bets are off. 

Eve gets there in exactly three minutes. Not bad considering she was half way across the Village. There’s a minivan parked, but no one has exited yet, so she hangs back a little. Knowing her luck she would run over and bang on the window to Team Azerbaijan or something just casually minding their business, so she pulls out her phone to call her and ask where she is.

When Eve is grabbed from behind, she almost jumps out of her skin, assuming it’s a murderer or ninja or something, but she’s immediately met with her girlfriend’s beaming face when she turns around, pulling her in for a huge bear hug in the middle of this vast, barren car park. 

“So proud of you,” Oksana chokes out, squeezing her so tight. “I love you. You did so well.”

They’re holding each other so close, silently crying into each other’s necks, never wanting to let go of one another. Oksana loosens her grip to place a kiss on Eve’s forehead, then a peck on her lips. Shock and excitement and pride overcomes them, and they just sob and smile and squeak instead of speaking any actual words. A whole conversation without words seems to take place, with Eve breathing shakily and shaking her head with a smile as Oksana nods her head in understanding and pulls her close again. 

“I watched the ending of your performance on TV. I saw you crying and it set me off,” Eve manages to get out, giggling and wiping tears from her eyes. “We did it. We actually did it.”

Oksana connects her lips with Eve, their kiss only lasting a couple seconds before they’re smiling too much to continue. 

“How did we both get two? How weird is that?”

“I know!” Eve squeaks, shaking her head in disbelief. “I told my coach I’m retiring. We’re now both officially retired. How’s it feel, baby?”

Oksana lets out an audible sigh, tilting her head back and more tears fall from her eyes. “Fucking amazing. I’m finally fucking free. We’re gonna have the best time together.”

Eve links their hands and pulls her along, heading towards the Team Russia building, physically unable to stop fussing and cooing and singing each other’s praises. Nothing on Earth could bring this moment down for them.

Back in Oksana’s room, they’re trying to talk to each other but literally can’t stop kissing and giggling and squealing and squeezing each other. Everytime they press their bodies together to kiss, their medals clink together, the weight of the surprisingly heavy metal hitting against each other’s tummies. 

“I love you, I love you, I love you,” Oksana repeats giddily like a mantra, punctuating each confession with a peck to her girlfriends lips, teeth clashing together when they’re both smiling too much to keep their mouths closed. “My little dolphin, little superstar. I love you.”

“I love you, baby. I’m so so proud of you,” Eve whispers against Oksana’s lips, complying as her girl’s tongue swipes along her lower lip. Their kiss is so sloppy and messy because they physically can’t stop smiling, cheeks aching and hearts full. Eve pulls away so she can repeat, “I love you so much.”

They begin to kiss again, tongues working together in sync, hands gently holding each other’s and its slow and loving and gentle and just so proud. Pride is radiating off them like rays from the sun, heating them up and enveloping them in comfort. The clinking of their medals reminds them of their joint victory and brings tears to their eyes, almost ready to open the floodgates once again. Pride in themselves and pride in each other and pride in their countries and pride in the beautiful love they’ve grown and cultivated over a sixteen day period. It’s all pride. 

Oksana guides Eve down gently from where they’re standing so that she’s lying on the bed, kicking off her shoes as she shuffles back and Oksana gets on top of her. Breaking the kiss, Oksana moves her head up to litter pecks all over Eve’s face, in her damp hair and on her lips, probably kissing every single inch of Eve’s face without fail. Mischievous lips head to Eve’s ear, kissing and nibbling at the lobe, causing her to giggle softly into her ear, the warmth of her breath sending shivers down Eve’s spine. Eve is muttering sweet nothings under her breath, praising Oksana and telling her how much she loves her as if she might forget at any second. Oksana’s mouth drops to Eve’s neck, kissing and nibbling there as normal, before opening her mouth a little wider, sucking and biting at the sensitive skin there. It takes Eve by surprise, bucking her hips up and whispering a ‘fuck’. They don’t care about the Closing Ceremony cameras catching wind of Eve’s love bite. They don’t care about her teammates knowing exactly who gave it to her. They don’t care about Eve’s family back home catching a glimpse of it when she does her ‘victory lap’ of Eastern Connecticut. In that moment, Eve doesn’t care about anything but the feeling. If she doesn’t leave Tokyo covered in bruises and marks and broken capillaries, she doesn’t want to.

“You’re mine, I love you.” Oksana growls, voice getting a little lower pitched as she kisses the pink mark she left on Eve’s neck, soon to be a deep, rich purple, letting everyone know she belongs to Oksana and Oksana only. 

“I love you. All yours.” Eve croaks out as Oksana kisses down her clavicle, fingers tracing her clothed left nipple through the shiny fabric of her sports bra. The definition of every single muscle in Eve’s body will never fail to turn Oksana on, feeling just how strong she is. Hearing Eve’s voice tell her those words makes her feel dizzy from the power, head rushing like she’s high, utterly euphoric. Oksana feels more animalistic every second, biting whatever skin she can access, tugging the sports bra up and over Eve’s head and grabbing handfuls of her tits. 

“These are mine.” Oksana states, attaching her mouth to a soft nipple, erecting it with her tongue and then blowing cold air onto it, causing Eve’s back to arch, repeating with the other nipple. 

Moving further down with both hands still playing with Eve’s nipples, she reaches her rock hard six pack, placing a kiss on each of the six clearly visible abdominal muscles on Eve’s tummy, feeling them flutter under her lips. “These are all mine.” The fucking gold medals are still lying flat against Eve’s tummy, adding a kilo of comforting weight onto her abs and it’s so fucking beautiful and lewd. Oksana places a kiss on both medals. Oksana’s words cause Eve’s stomach to do somersaults, pulse racing and wetness beginning to seep out beneath her legs. Being claimed by Oksana and owned by Oksana is all she has wanted since laying eyes on her and now her dream has come true. Seeing her girl all possessive and dominant for once is unusual, but welcomed nonetheless. She’s like a wolf marking her territory and Eve can’t complain, wants to be marked by her and claimed by her for the rest of her life. 

As Oksana’s mouth drops to the waistband of her shorts, tugging them down with a little help from a raise of Eve’s hips, both girls’ brains short circuit. It’s a mixture of dominance and submission and sheer love and adoration and pride. So many emotions and feelings flood through their heads. It’s all so overwhelming. Oksana spreads Eve’s legs open, caressing her small butt and decorating her thighs with kisses and bites and hickeys, claiming them as hers. Eve’s black lacy thong equally turns Oksana on and pisses her off. It looks so beautiful and flattering on her girl, resting on her hips and accentuating her ass in the most beautiful way, but at the same time it’s hiding Oksana’s most prized possession from her, desperate to just head right in and make Eve feel good. 

Slowly, Oksana pulls down the thong, as if she were putting on a show for herself, listening to Eve’s whines get more and more desperate above her. Centimetre by centimetre, Eve’s pussy is slowly revealed to her and it excites her all the same as it did that very first night they spent together. Oksana finds herself spreading Eve’s outer lips apart for the sole purpose of admiring her, but decides after a couple of seconds that it’s kinda weird to just stare and she should stop. Oksana licks her own lips, then connects her tongue to Eve’s core, feeling the slight wetness waiting for her already. She knows Eve can do better than that, though. Oksana can also do better than that, knowing exactly where to touch her to get her soaked. Eve’s whines and pants turn into moans as Oksana begins slowly licking at her clit, chin positioned at her entrance, feeling every wave of wetness leak out at her motions. 

“Is this mines?” Oksana asks softly from her position, looking up at Eve with big green eyes, fluttering her eyelashes innocently. When her lips attach directly to Eve’s clit and begin suckling, she digs her fingernails into Eve’s thighs, hard enough to leave marks but not hard enough to seriously hurt her. Eve’s hands find their way into Oksana’s hair, pushing her down and making sure she can’t move, moaning as she gyrates her hips a little. 

“All yours,” Eve breathes out, head fogging up with Oksana’s administrations. “No one else’s.”

Floods of wetness are leaking out of Eve now as she patiently anticipates Oksana’s next move. The younger girl remains sucking and licking on her clit for a few more minutes before leaving one final kiss on it and rising up. Eve whimpers with the lack of contact, but shuts up as she watches Oksana pull her own leggings and panties down, lifting her sports bra carefully above her head, leaving her in only her Gold medals, looking absolutely delicious. 

“I get to go first.” Oksana states as she sits on the edge of the bed and kisses Eve’s forehead, smiling widely at her. 

“First for what?” Eve giggles, reaching out to caress Oksana’s back with her fingertips, just desperate to touch any piece of her body she can reach. 

Oksana bends down and lifts the strap-on from her bottom drawer, still slightly ajar from the last time they opened it. Eve’s eyes widen in excitement as she remembers the deal they made a couple nights ago in regards to the strap. They both won 2 Golds each, so they get to take turns with it. While Eve isn’t overly fussed by vaginal stimulation, she can’t deny the butterflies in her stomach erupting as she watches Oksana expertly step into the harness and adjust the buckles to fit round her snugly. She wields it like a real cock, holding the base in her hand as she saunters back over to where Eve lays in anticipation. It’s slightly smaller than Oksana’s big dildo from the other night, probably around six and a half inches, still huge. 

“Is this alright?” Oksana checks in as she clambers on top of Eve and slides the cock against her clit. They always like to check if the other is comfortable before trying something new, but truthfully, the hitches in Eve’s breath tell her all she needs to know. 

“Yes, baby. Just be gentle, okay? Haven’t taken anything big in a while.” Eve reassures her, moving a stray piece of blonde hair dangling in front of her to behind Oksana’s ear. Oksana places a kiss to her forehead as she continues her gentle hip motions, grinding the cock along the length of Eve’s pussy, hopefully getting it nice and wet before actually entering. Eve is huffing, grinding her hips up, clearly getting more impatient with every teasing motion. 

Lining up with Eve’s entrance, Oksana gently pushes into her, looking down at her face as she enters inch by inch, not missing the little forehead crinkles and eye flutters Eve expresses. Pressing in fully with a bit more force, she bottoms out, moaning at the mere sight of the top of her harness pressed against Eve’s clit and the twitch Eve lets out at the contact. Oksana quietly asks once again if Eve is alright, to which Eve nods and smiles up at her, needing a few extra moments to adjust to the feeling of being full. Eve’s normally the one wearing the strap 95% of the time in her relationships, so she isn’t adapted to this the way Oksana is, and she’s just thankful that Oksana is respectful of that. Most of her previous experience with being strapped involves girls going right in and jackhammering straight away, causing discomfort and pain. She’s guilty of doing it herself sometimes. So Oksana’s softness and gentle administrations, pausing completely and taking Eve’s lips between her own to distract her from the stretch, is wholly welcomed. Their gold medals rub together as they make out, chests heaving and heart rates through the roof. Oksana hasn’t even been touched and is already a mess, feeling the second-hand pleasure from Eve. When Eve tries to up the tempo of their kiss, Oksana knows she’s getting needy and she’s ready for her to move. 

“Okay?” Oksana asks as she slowly withdraws her hips, having to steady herself as she sees the toy coated in Eve’s slick wetness, glistening in the harsh overhead lighting. 

Eve nods and moans as Oksana pushes back into her in one swift, strong movement, hitting her spot head on, probably also from multiple angles with the width of the toy. She pulls out again, a little faster this time before pushing back in, paying close attention to her face for any indication of discomfort. When she’s sure Eve can take it, her pace picks up with every thrust of her hips, going from slow, steady thrusts to quick, shallow thrusts with barely an inch of the cock leaving Eve at any time, just repeatedly hammering into her g-spot. Oksana’s tummy is pressed against Eve’s now, head buried in her neck as she breathes out heavily. While Oksana doesn’t personally feel much pleasure from this, the sounds Eve makes are turning her on to no end and on particularly hard thrusts, the base of the harness puts pressure on her clit, giving her gentle stimulation when she bottoms out. 

“You like it?” Oksana pants, warm breath burning up Eve’s neck, leaving gentle kisses now and then. Her hips are working at a steady speed, no where near tiring. She didn’t spend fifteen years learning to balance handstands on uneven bars for minutes at a time and perfecting layout saltos into front and side splits landings just for her hips to get tired three minutes in. If Eve has the stamina, Oksana can keep this up for hours. That’s the good part about sleeping with an athlete. Repetitive, strained motions are nothing new to them and the constant breaks and switching positions that plague a non-athlete’s sex life are pretty uncommon here. They’re getting better at lasting longer these days too. While the first couple times they had sex were over as quick as they began, they’ve adapted to each other’s tempo and technique and can actually hold off their orgasm a little better now. They’ve experimented with edging each other, for the plain and simple reason that they want to make things last longer. Both girls have capability for multiple orgasms, with Oksana finding it slightly easier, but they tend to be so exhausted after they come that another round isn’t always worth it. Hopefully, in the future this will change, with the intensive, soul destroying Olympic training days a thing of the past, leaving them with a little more energy to use up.

Eve’s breaths are coming out as pants, almost as if she’s gasping for air after being held under water. Oksana’s hips keep up their relentless pace, the sound of the dildo slapping against Eve’s wetness on every entry echoing throughout the room. Oksana lifts her head from where its nestled in Eve’s neck and coos a little, “Talk to me, Evie. I like it when you talk to me.”

Eve giggles at this, making her pussy contract tighter around the toy as she lets out a broken moan she attempted to hold in. “You want me to tell you you’re doing a good job? Fucking me so good?”

The younger girl nods and smiles, playing with Eve’s nipples as she slams into her, overwhelming Eve’s senses. 

“Look at you, pretty girl,” Eve tells her lovingly, still letting out choked breaths in between words. “Pretty girl fucking me wearing only her gold medals. My special girl, making me so proud.”

A blush rises to Oksana’s cheeks as she reaches one hand down to play with Eve’s clit with her thumb, admiring the way Eve bucks her hip up at this action. “Keep going. Keep talking.” Oksana pants, speeding up the tempo of her thrusts, now getting her clit stimulated upon every movement into Eve and Eve’s words and noises are making her a mess already. 

“All mine, baby,” coos Eve as she grabs Oksana’s shoulders to pull her down close like she was before. “My precious girl, doing so well. Such a good girl.”

Oksana feels like she might pass out, increasing the speed of her thumb against Eve’s sensitive little clit, attempting to rub in circles but unable to get a good grip due to how wet she is so instead just sliding around a lot. Eve lifts up to kiss Oksana like she loves to do, feeling herself getting closer to the edge and wanting to stifle her moans a little with Oksana’s mouth. They’re so gone by this point that their ‘kiss’ is all tongue, basically just licking each other’s tongues and moaning into each other’s mouths. Oksana’s getting light stimulation, but it’s not enough to get her close which is irritating her, increasing her pace in an attempt to get more friction, to no avail. 

“Close, baby,” Eve whines out, digging her nails into Oksana’s bare back, not caring where she leaves marks now. With neither of them competing anymore, they can mark each other however the hell they want without judges docking points for presentation. “Keep going, gonna come on your cock.”

Oksana’s clit twitches just from those words alone, wishing she really did have a cock to fuck her with and feel the ultimate pleasure from, but she doesn’t and it’s frustrating. Making Eve feel good will always be her first priority though, and if she needs to get herself off alone later, then so be it. Her thumb starts rubbing impossibly faster, making Eve rise up off the bed in ecstasy, pushing her hips upward to meet every thrust of Oksana’s strap-on. Moans are tumbling out of her with no means of stopping them anymore, the toy hitting her spot so perfectly on every thrust.

“Oksana...I’m...I think...” Eve babbles, reminiscent of how Oksana herself sounds when she’s needy and desperate to come, unable to form a coherent sentence. She smiles a little to herself about how the roles are reversed right now. 

“It’s okay, baby. Let go. Come on my cock, Evie.” Oksana purrs, voice gentle and encouraging like she’s talking to a hesitant little puppy. 

When Eve goes silent and blunt nails dig into her upper arms, Oksana knows she’s coming. Every sound she could possibly make is ripped from her ability, only able to look up at Oksana open mouthed and silently gasping for air. They hold eye contact throughout Eve’s entire orgasm, Oksana’s hip motions only stopping once Eve’s moans finally start tumbling out after her momentary mutism. Eve takes a moment to catch her breath, staring up at the ceiling, chest heaving and baby hairs stuck to her forehead with sweat. 

“Did you come?” Eve pants as Oksana pulls out and lays down next to her, still wearing the harness. In her less horny state, it looks kind of ridiculous, but if it brought her an orgasm this intense then she can’t complain. 

Oksana shakes her head shyly, scared to seem like an inconvenience, offering to just get herself off while Eve showers. It’s no surprise that Eve finds this suggestion ridiculous, insisting that Oksana take the harness off and pull out the magic wand vibrator from her drawer. This is, unknowing to Eve, Oksana’s favourite toy. It can bring her from 0-100 in a matter of minutes, powerful vibrations she swears she can feel throughout her entire body. Oksana unbuckles the harness and throws it on the floor somewhere, grabbing the vibrator from the drawer and passing it to Eve. 

The vibrator has three settings, indicated by one, two and three lightning bolt icons respectively. Eve turns it on the lowest and holds it against her hand, feeling the vibrations before turning it up to the higher settings and just silently reviewing how powerful the toy is in her hand. Oksana is desperate, lying next to Eve on the bed, bucking her hips and kissing Eve’s neck and lips and tits and just anywhere that might make Eve pay some attention to her. 

“Do you want highest setting? Lowest? Middle?” Eve asks her teasingly as she runs the vibrator over her shaking thighs, changing the level with each option she offers. 

Oksana moans, feeling it so close yet so far from where she needs it. “Highest. Please put it where I want it, I’ve been so good. Made you so proud of me all day.”

Eve’s heart swoons at the needy girl’s words. Its true, she has made her unbelievably proud all day. There’s a visible wet patch on the sheet from Oksana’s dripping arousal, feeling Eve move the vibrator from her thighs up to her stomach and boobs, back down to her abdomen and thighs. It’s vibrating deliciously everywhere except her clit, and Oksana can’t take it anymore. 

Eve clicks the vibrator down onto the lowest setting, finally beginning to trail it down to Oksana’s pussy. She still avoids her clit, but at least now she gets a tiny bit of relief as Eve massages her entrance with it, getting it nice and wet. After what feels like years, Eve finally presses the buzzing vibrator against her desperate, neglected clit, smiling cockily as Oksana’s face is contorted in pleasure. Turning the vibrator up to the middle setting, Eve watches as Oksana’s legs begin visibly shaking, opening wider for Eve to get better access. Just as Oksana is close, Eve turns it down back to the lowest setting, a teasing hum that feels good but isn’t enough to take her to the edge. She simply whines in frustration, sounding like she’s on the verge of tears, so Eve puts it on a higher level again, only to turn it down again once Oksana’s close. 

“What wrong baby? Why are you upset?” Eve teases when Oksana starts babbling incoherently, a tear streaming down her face from the repeated orgasm denial. Eve places a hand on her girlfriend’s cheek with her free hand, wiping the tear with her thumb and leaning in for an unreciprocated peck on the lips. 

Oksana can’t talk. She can’t think. Can’t move other than involuntary tremors wracking her entire body, mainly her legs that are twitching like never before. When Eve notices more fluid dribbling out between Oksana’s thighs, soaking a patch on their white sheets, Eve coos again. “Look at you making a mess, so desperate, huh? So pretty in your medals, Oksana, being so messy. You really can’t hold it in, can you?”

Oksana frantically shakes her head no, looking up at Eve with pleading eyes as she finally clicks the vibrator to high, maintaining eye contact with Oksana as her orgasm hits her like a train almost immediately, whole body heaving and shaking and boneless and letting out mumbles of ‘thank you’ which sound more like unintelligible whines. Eve understands, though, and that’s all that matters. Eve clicks the vibrator off a few seconds after Oksana orgasms, knowing that holding it there too long will only hurt her girl. If there’s one thing she never wants to do, it’s hurt Oksana. Her girl lays there panting, eyes glazed over and mouth still ajar. Her shaky left hand lifts up to touch her own medals, laying heavy on her tummy, reminding her of just how hard she had to work to get in this very position with Eve. 

“I love you,” Eve coos, cuddling up to Oksana and pulling a blanket over them. The sheets are damp from sweat and come and drool and part of her feels bad for the poor, underpaid, possibly volunteer cleaners who change their sheets everyday. “So proud of you. I love you.”

“I love you.” Oksana responds sleepily, snuggling up closer to Eve as her breathing returns to normal, head still dizzy and heart still full. 

“The Ceremony starts at 8, we still have like two and a half hours,” Eve hums after a couple minutes of silence, index finger drawing little love hearts on Oksana’s collarbone. “We could nap for like an hour if you want?”

There’s no response from Oksana, not a hum or an “okay” which is unusual. Eve casts her eyes up a little and almost melts when she sees Oksana is already sleeping, cherubic face all relaxed, soft little breaths huffing out of her nose. Eve gently moves so that she can grab her phone, abandoned beneath the pillow somewhere, and sets an alarm for 6:30pm. They have a big night ahead of them and a nap will do them a world of good. Plus, mid-day naps with Oksana are Eve’s favourite, feeling her girl so warm and close and relaxed.

(She finds herself thinking that this is what their future holds. No responsibilities, full days of sex and naps and more sex and more naps. If Eve were to describe her perfect day, it would be just that - and perfect days are on the horizon.)

The annoying, persistent beeping of the alarm an hour later elicits a groan from Oksana, waking her up before it wakes Eve up. It’s one of those naps where she wakes up disoriented and confused, unsure if it’s day or night, what country she’s in, who she’s with. A smile immediately rises to her lips as she looks down at Eve. Her girl stays cuddled up in her arms, body curled into a little ball as she expertly sleeps through the alarm, still deep in sleep. 

“Evie,” Oksana chirps. “Are you awake?”

When there’s no response from Eve, Oksana sits up a little and shakes her gently. “Come on, wake up. Ready to party?”

Eve stretches a little and peeks one eye open to see her girl smiling at her. Huffing, she cuddles up closer to Oksana, burying her face into her side. “Five more minutes.”

Oksana giggles a little, moving her hands into Eve’s curls and lightly brushing through them. Pool water always makes her hair even curlier somehow, loose loops turning to ringlets and it’s one of Oksana’s favourite things. Eve looks so sleepy and peaceful, she can’t bare to say no to her, so she cuddles back into her and allows Eve an extra couple minutes to sleep. Oksana relishes in the warmth of their embrace, still naked bar the medals that hang from their necks and rest heavy against the mattress. 

The Closing Ceremony consists of overdramatic visuals and showcases, exaggerated to look great on a TV screen and mediocre in person. The first half of the ceremony consists of Japan showing off their culture and thanking everyone for attending. The second half consists of the next Olympic host city, (in this case, it’s Paris) promoting their city and starting to hype up the world for the next Games. In contrast to the Opening Ceremony where every single athlete paraded round the arena, only one athlete from each nation gets walk round the stadium and bear their flag. Eve was flag bearer for GB in London so most likely won’t be picked again, and Oksana was flag bearer for Russia in Rio. If all goes to plan, they’ll be at their seats the entire time, a very welcome luxury. 

The afterparty, though, is always the funnest night of the Games. Pretty much all 12,000 athletes are packed into a couple conference rooms, with barely any space to move around, half of them drunk off their asses and everyone having the best time. It’s also an insane hookup fest, even more so than the Opening Ceremony, but neither girl has to worry about that aspect tonight. There’s normally a free bar with an ‘all-you-can-drink’ sentiment, probably costing the host city hundreds of thousands on alcohol alone. Team GB collectively almost missed their flight home in Rio due to their intense hangovers that felt like they were on death’s door. After the London Olympics, thousands of athletes returned to their home countries with dry coughs and chest infections from the combination of close contact and cheap, ominous vodka (which no one could guarentee wasn’t just jet fuel in a bottle). Something about the pressure of the Games being lifted for another four years makes everyone feral, dropping their guards and hooking up with multiple people in the same night. Most of all though, Oksana is just excited to see Eve all dressed up and pretty. 

“Okay, wake up sleepyhead. I gave you six minutes,” she tells Eve, poking at her face and willing her to get up. “We need to shower, we’re all gross.”

“You go shower,” Eve grumbles sleepily, slapping Oksana’s hand away when she starts tickling her. “I’ll sleep til you come back. Leave me alone.”

“Ooh, she’s grumpy,” Oksana teases, leaning down to kiss Eve’s forehead, then her nose then her lips and back up. Eve is really not in the mood and Oksana wallows in her ability to irritate her. “If you don’t get up we’ll be late.”

With a huff, Eve finally opens her eyes and looks up at her annoyingly perky girlfriend with a pout, unable to stay in her mood when Oksana smiles at her like this. Sitting up, she grabs her Tokyo 2020 white linen robe from where it lays discarded somewhere on the floor and unenthusiastically follows Oksana to the shower blocks, with Eve carrying both of their wash bags. 

Getting ready consists of both girls fighting over who gets to sit on the ground by the full-length mirror and who has to stand while putting on makeup. Of course, as always Oksana gets her own way, sitting pretty on a cushion while Eve stands. Oksana also gets first use of the hairdryer, even though her hair is thinner and would dry just fine on it’s own. She calls it payback for not waking up on time. Eve is force-feeding Moët to Oksana out of a Tokyo 2020 mug, complaining that she drinks so slow and needs to work on her pace if she wants to outdrink her. Oksana’s phone plays a weird playlist of Russian chart music and she sings every word while putting on her makeup, only stopping to angrily swear at her eyelash not sticking or grumble a “where the fuck did my brush go?”. 

When Oksana first sees Eve in her navy blue bodycon slip dress in her periphery, she almost spills her drink and smudges her eyeliner. Seeing her girl in something so flattering (and something without the Union Jack on it) sends her brain into overdrive, wanting nothing more than to rip the dress right off her again. The admiration is short lived, though, as when Eve can’t get the god forsaken stiff-as-shit zip up on her own, she enlists Oksana’s help. Oksana is evidently no help. (“I’m pulling it as hard as I can.” she huffed, tugging it with so much force she might actually rip the zip clean off. “It’s not about pulling hard, it’s about keeping it straight so it doesn’t get stuck on the fabric.” Eve rolls her eyes, laughing as Oksana gets more and more frustrated. “Stop laughing at me, do you want me to help you or not?”)

“Your makeup looks pretty,” Eve tells her, admiring her work and giving her a peck on the lips, mindful of potentially smudging the nude lipstick that’s still setting. 

“You look pretty,” Oksana replies, running her hands up and down Eve’s sides, the satin of her dress still cold from where it was hung up for the past few weeks. “Gonna have me all distracted later.”

Oksana’s still in her robe, hair straightened and soft glam applied, leaving only her dress to put on. When she does, Eve’s smile grows impossibly wider. It’s similar to Eve’s in that it’s bodycon and short, but also has plunge detail which shows off her boobs in the most delicious way. Eve’s stuck between awe at their perfection and jealousy that others will get to see them. 

“So beautiful.” And when Eve tells her that, she really, really means it. 

“Are you wearing your medals to the Ceremony? And the afterparty? Is that a thing? I don’t remember if I did in Rio.”

Eve nods and shrugs a little. “I guess most people do wear them. I always have, but it’s up to you. I’m wearing mine tonight. People will give you extra drinks and stuff if you have a Gold.”

“Okay, you’ve convinced me.”

The Closing Ceremony starts with around a hundred Japanese dancers from a specific dance university, all perfectly moving in sync to an upbeat remix of a Japanese traditional song, slowing down at the middle, almost like a ballet and then getting fully acrobatic by the end. White and red fireworks are dominating the night sky, loud banging and crackling almost drowned out by the sheer volume of the music playing from the arena. Visuals of Japan’s skylines and landmarks are projected onto the stage, settling on the Japanese flag by the end of the routine, big enough that every dancer can somehow fit inside the red disc for the final pose. 

Next, a choir of 47 children from each prefecture of Japan make their way onto the arena floor to sing the Japanese National Anthem, joined by the Team Japan Olympics team in the stalls. The entire crowd stands for this, Eve squeezing Oksana’s hand as they do, listening to the beautiful song echoing through the Olympic Stadium. (They snuck in flasks of straight vodka, taped to their thighs under their dresses and are taking swigs of them to make this painfully long ceremony go by a little easier. They’re tipsy ten minutes in.)

The rest of Japan’s time on stage is focused on their culture. Probably every iconic Japanese motif is portrayed in some way or another, with dancers in origami outfits, sakura buds blown from confetti cannons around the arena and pottery and ceramics symbolism reflected onto the stage. There’s a section on animation, showcasing popular cartoons like Hello Kitty and Pokémon, celebrating the world renowned animation efforts from Japan. There’s a section on technology, highlighting brands such as Toshiba and Hitachi and Nissan as well as more high-tech inventions like robots and artificial intelligence that Japan are undoubtedly paving the way for. A video game section highlights their early technical advances with arcade games like Pac-Man, before delving into video games like Mario and Kirby and Animal Crossing. All manners of Japanese fashion are showcased, from traditional kimono and hakama to extensive cosplay to fresh, urban streetwear. There’s a section highlighting the lows of Japanese history that they managed to overcome as a nation, from earthquakes and typhoons to nuclear bombs and devastation, all with an underlying message of hope and reconstruction. All the hard work of the athletes is acknowledged and praised, making a point of uniting athletes and spectators into one, hopefully inspiring the next generation of young wannabe Olympians. 

Flag bearing athletes are called down to the field to complete their walk-around march, waving and cheering at the crowd as they walk round. Next up comes the flag handover, beginning with the Greek National Anthem and then the Olympic Anthem sung in Japanese which everyone once again rises for. The mayor of Tokyo holds the Olympic Flag, passing it to the International Olympics Committee president who then passes it to the mayor of Paris. French athletes sing their National Anthem from the stalls. Paris’ presentation begins, highlighting pride and culture in France. Visuals of the Eiffel Tower, fashion houses, fine art and architecture are displayed. (And, of course, there are visuals of macarons and baguettes and the dancers wear berets and stripes, because how could they not.) Eve squeezes Oksana’s hand, watching as her eyes shine in amazement at the Parisian presentation, making a mental note to take her girl to Paris for the 2024 Olympics, just as a spectator for once. 

The Olympic Flame is extinguished and the Ceremony finally ends with one final messaged splayed out boldly across the stage, confetti cannons and fireworks bursting, loud music finally coming to a dramatic end. “Arigato, Tokyo. Bonjour, Paris.”

The afterparty starts with free samples of Japanese saké rice wine dished out by finely dressed Japanese servers, congratulating the athletes as they enter the designated party conference halls. There’s a couple DJs standing in the very back, playing a loud assortment of international party songs from every continent and athletes are flooding in from each of the multiple entrance doors, easily 3000 people here already. Eve and Oksana are already buzzed from the bottle of Moët they hurriedly finished while getting ready and the vodka they sneaked into the ceremony, so they blend in well. The combinations of rice wine, champagne and vodka will floor them eventually, but for now it seems like a good idea. 

Right off the bat, all Eve can notice as they walk into this crowded space is that all eyes are on Oksana. Or it feels that way, anyway. Maybe they’re just intrigued by the medals round her neck or they’re fans of gymnastics or something, but when other athletes begin shouting comments at her and talking amongst themselves about her in their language, Eve feels rightfully possessive. Of course, Oksana is oblivious, holding Eve’s hand in her own and dragging her towards the main dance floor without a care in the world, tipsy and excited. All Eve can see is a sea of eyes on her girl, maybe exaggerated in her own mind, but she wishes she could mark her territory all the same. Her heart sinks at the realisation that Oksana could really get anyone she wanted here, man or woman, but somehow she picked her and she could change her mind at any second. They both finish their third tumbler of saké in one final gulp, placing the empty cups on a random table before Oksana pulls Eve into the crowd of dancing bodies as the opening notes of Danza Kuduro blast out of the speakers. Hugo and Jess follow closely behind them, also hand in hand for the sole purpose of not losing each other in the huge, ever growing crowd while Kenny and Elena stand up at the bar getting trays of drinks and shots for the six of them. 

The diving squad are notorious for partying hard and all Eve can do is hope that Oksana is able to keep up with them. The nap they had earlier will have helped and if she wants to go home early at any point, Eve will come with her without any complaints. It’s their last night in the Olympic Games together and Eve wants to spend every second of it having fun with her. The crowd is hot, everyone sticky with sweat and clinging onto their drinks like they’re holy water. Hundreds of ripped guys have taken their shirts off all together, walking around like the gift they seem to think they are. The sea of drunk girls welcome these shirtless torsos though, so who’s really complaining. They find a little semi-empty seated spot in a corner, still mere steps away from the huge crowd if they feel like dancing, but private enough to safely put down their drinks and have some alone time if needed. Their area will no doubt get ransacked as more people attend, but for now it’ll do. 

“Come dance!” Oksana squeaks as she drags Eve and Jess into the chaotic crowd of dancing bodies, jumping up and down and clapping when she sees Kenny and Elena come back with trays, one filled with shots and the other filled with various vodka mixes 

Eve grabs two drinks, one for her and one for the girl who’s forcing Jess to dance with her. They’re some sort of vodka mixed with something. It’s dark in here and she can’t even make out the colour of the liquid, but flavour is the last thing she cares about right now. All she wants to do is have fun with her girlfriend and friends, celebrating their joint victories and ending their Tokyo trip on a high note. So for now, they dance and drink and don’t think much about anything. It’s the first stress-free day since they touched down, they deserve it. 

“You’re my wingwoman tonight, okay?” Hugo says to Oksana, having to shout to be heard over the loud music, repeating his sentence into her ear when she didn’t hear the first time. They’re sitting on a green velvet couch just meters from the dancefloor, Hugo’s arm behind her back, spreading his legs wide enough so no one can sit close to them. Oksana only planned to sit down for a couple shots, but she’s been stuck in a conversation with Hugo for the past few minutes. 

“Yes, of course,” Oksana agrees, straightening his tie a little from where he tied it sloppily and tapping him on the nose. “Whoever you want, I’ll try my best. I can be very persuasive.”

Hugo must realise that whenever Oksana can’t hear him, she leans in closer, so he talks quieter than normal to keep her close. “You look beautiful tonight.” he tells her, eliciting a smile from her. Oksana tells him he doesn’t look too bad either. 

As much as he would claim he isn’t, Eve knows that Hugo is checking Oksana out, looking her up and down, placing a splayed hand on her thigh. Eve is dancing with the rest of her team and some random foreign athletes they made friends with on the dance floor, but she can’t stop herself from glancing over to her girlfriend every so often. Eve can recognise advances from Hugo from a mile off, and the fact that Oksana isn’t exactly shutting him down is slightly worrying. (“Try it! It’s good!” Hugo shouts excitedly, encouraging Oksana to try a Gammel Dansk shot from Scandinavia, laughing at her and rubbing her back when she tries it and discovers that it does not taste good and in fact tastes like lava and shit and cough syrup blended together. She shouts back a long, drawn out, “I hate you!” and slaps his arm playfully.)

Hugo takes her hand, pulling her up to dance as Hey Ya by Outkast begins to play, and if Eve didn’t know better she’d think they were flirting with each other. Well, she knows for a fact that they’re flirting with each other. But she also knows for a fact that both Hugo and Oksana just have flirty personalities and there’s nothing more to it than that. Oksana’s a lesbian. Hugo literally poses zero threat to their relationship. It doesn’t stop the fiery jealousy burning up inside Eve as she watches them stand face to face, Hugo leaning down and Oksana on her tippy toes so they can talk into each other’s ear. It seriously looks like they’re about to kiss. With every flirty slap on Hugo’s bicep and every brief touch of Oksana’s ass, Eve wants to rip them both apart. When they start comparing hand sizes, Eve steps in, not wanting to seem crazy overbearing but wanting Oksana to actually acknowledge her presence instead of her best friend’s. 

“Will you come to the bathroom with me, sweetheart?” Eve asks sweetly in Oksana’s ear, pressing up behind her and wrapping her arms round her waist. Her girl nods and smiles, twisting her head so she can kiss Eve on the cheek, grabbing her hand and being led through the crowd willingly. Oksana’s spaced out, singing along to the loud music and struggling to see more than a foot in front of her, fully trusting Eve to guide them. 

“You like Hugo, huh?” Eve asks her, trying not to let the jealousy seep through her tone. 

Oksana nods and bounces alongside Eve, significantly drunker than Eve due to the assortment of exotic shots Hugo insisted on getting for her and no one else. “Yeah, he’s funny. I’m his wingwoman. He taught me what that means. It means I have to help him find someone to sleep wi-”

“It’s you he wants to sleep with,” Eve huffs as they’re finally in the slightly quieter lounge where the bathrooms are, able to actually hear each other now. “I don’t know if you noticed but he would’ve jumped your bones on site if I didn’t take you away from him. You can still talk to him but just don’t give him the wrong idea, alright?”

Oksana lets out a little shy giggle, unsure if Eve is serious or not. Unsure if Eve is mad at her or not. “I’m sorry, Evie. I didn’t know.”

“Hey, don’t apologise. Everyone in there is checking you out if you didn’t already notice,” Eve tells her with an eye roll. “Good thing you’re all mine, right?”

Her girl nods happily, leaning in to peck her on the lips momentarily. “All yours.”

“I didn’t actually need to go to the bathroom. I just wanted to get your attention.” confesses Eve against Oksana’s lips, connecting them again moments after pulling away. 

Both girls link hands again before heading back into the hall, making a bee line for the bar. They order a tequila shot each, licking the salt, swallowing the shot and sucking their lemons simultaneously, high-fiving afterwards. They do a couple more vodka shots before ordering two double vodkas each to take back to the dance floor, Oksana in front holding a glass in each hand and Eve following close behind her to where their friends are. 

Everyone’s positively drunk now, dancing and singing together to all these strange international songs, making friends with the random athletes surrounding them and drinking whatever weird test tube shots they’re offered from servers. 

Eve learns quickly that Oksana gets hornier with every drink, starting by grinding against her from both in front and behind, pressing against her tightly as if she might lose her. After their sixth double vodka, she has Eve pushed against a wall, making out with her slowly and gyrating her hips as a Japanese rap song bursts out of the speakers. Oksana’s hands are grabbing at Eve’s ass, kneading it through the dress and then slipping underneath it eventually, continuing to squeeze at her bare ass. Everyone can see them right now. Their friends are just a couple meters away, strangers are walking by them in their hundreds and a couple of other people stand beside them. They’re too buzzed and euphoric to give a shit, though. They’re hardly the only ones grossly making out, with the majority of athletes at the party on the hunt for someone to take home. They blend in nicely like this. 

When Oksana pulls away for a breath, Eve finally gets the opportunity to do what she’s been meaning to do since they walked in and all eyes were on Oksana. She leans her head down to her girlfriend’s neck, taking a large area of skin between her teeth, sucking and biting her there in an attempt to make a huge lasting mark. It’s a lot bigger than the love bite Oksana gave Eve a couple hours previous, and they might be embarrassed come morning time, but for now Eve is happy that her territory has been marked and Oksana’s all hers. 

“I love you,” Oksana groans as she feels Eve soothingly kissing and licking at the skin she was so rough with moments ago. “Don’t want anyone else.”

“Love you, too.” Eve replies, making eye contact with her girl again when she lifts up from her neck, pupils blacked out in the dark room. When Oksana stumbles backwards a little, Eve smiles and protectively wraps an arm round her and guides the drunk, giggling girl back to their friends. 

Another server comes round with more test tube shots and Hugo grabs one for each of them and passes them round. They’re filled with some ominous neon liquids, reds and greens and yellows and taste like artificial fruit, burning the back of their throats with the surprisingly high alcohol content. Oksana gets caught in another conversation with Hugo, this time not entertaining him any more than necessary, knowing that it put Eve on edge last time. Eve figures its her turn to go get the next round of drinks. It’s a free bar and there’s a couple of them, but the lines are still pretty long nonetheless and so there’s an unspoken order of who goes when. 

Her head spins as she walks to the bar, feeling drunk as hell now. Random guys try grabbing at her hips when she walks past, getting desperate for literally any sexual partner at this point, thirty minutes before the party ends. She throws a few dirty looks as she stumbles her way into the line, surprisingly less busy than last time she was here. Random athletes congratulate her on the medals hanging from her neck and all she can do is smile and thank them, smiling and dazed and in her own little world. 

(When Eve returns with a large tray of drinks, she begins to think Oksana is lost, gone with the wind. She almost gives up hope on finding her anytime soon when even Hugo doesn’t know her whereabouts, figuring she made random international friends and she’s partying with them. She’ll turn up later even drunker than before. However, when she looks over at a nearby table, she sees Elena and Oksana standing on top of it, bumping and grinding to Gasolina while a crowd of onlookers clap and cheer them on. She’s fine.)

“So how did you get into the golf cart driving business?” A very drunk Oksana asks a very over-it Japanese golf cart driver. Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t get a response. Her next question of, “Is it easy to drive a golf cart?” also goes unanswered. She’ll blame the language barrier and not his obvious annoyance at his boozed-up passengers. 

The Olympic Village decides every year that golf carts are the safest mode of transport from the party venues back to the athlete’s buildings. No risk of drunk driving with designated, qualified drivers and less fuel emissions they have to pay for. It’s a win-win. (They seem to forget that relying on a bunch of drunk, hyper 20-somethings to hold onto bars in an open vehicle with no seat belts for a ten minute journey won’t always end well. Kenny keeps standing up to wave to passersby and Oksana is pushing random control buttons, getting her hand swiftly swatted away by the driver every time. The bumpy gravel on the ground is making an already sick Elena want to throw up more than she already has. Eve is just focused on not falling off the cart like she did after a very drunken afterparty in Rio, waking up with ominous scrapes and bruises that she couldn’t remember getting until Jess gave her an account of her actions.)

They can’t even remember leaving Eve’s teammates as they headed to the GB building, can’t even remember the elevator ride up to Oksana’s room in the Russia building. One minute, they’re outside in the street singing ABBA and the next minute, Oksana is fumbling around with her door entrance card, cursing at it to work when it keeps getting rejected, resorting to trying to kick the door down instead. Oksana’s teammates must be otherwise occupied in other peoples’ rooms, which will be a bonus for them if they can ever get into Oksana’s room. 

“Maybe try flip the card around,” Eve slurs with a hiccup, giggling uncontrollably when Oksana turns it vertically instead, confused by the instruction. Eve’s leaning back against the wall in the hallway as she watches her girl in amusement, head spinning and smile permanently plastered on her face. “I mean flip it to the other side where the chip thingy is.”

Eve takes the card off of Oksana, flipping it so the chip is actually facing the sensor, the only single prerequisite for an open door. They let out over-exaggerated cheers when the door swings open with Oksana’s weight leaning against it and the girls stagger in. 

“See? Where would you be without me? You’d be screwed if I wasn’t so smart. You’d be lying out in the hallway all night-”

And Eve trips over the door mat, hitting the ground with a thud, landing on her hands and knees and taking a moment to process what just happened before going straight into another laughing fit. 

“Are you okay?” Oksana giggles, kneeling down to lay beside Eve. She’s drinking in her cute little laughs, a sound she could never ever tire of. Her head is spinning and she can hardly even make out Eve’s expression. “Did you hurt yourself?”

Eve shakes her head and leans her neck up to kiss Oksana on the lips, relishing in the feeling that she’ll be deprived of for a little while starting tomorrow. She’ll make the most of the time they have left, though. Oksana’s front door is still wide open so she kicks it over with her foot as their kissing begins to heat up. They’re laying down on the cold wooden floor of the hallway, so close yet so far from Oksana’s bedroom where they know they should probably take this. It’s fine for now though, they’re just enjoying the feeling of having the other so close and present and all theirs, the world completely shut out. Eve interrupts their kiss with a little hiccup, and Oksana giggles at the cuteness. 

“Should we get off the ground?” Oksana asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“I’m comfy.” Eve whines, reaching out for Oksana’s ankle when she tries to walk away. 

“Come on... I’m horny and we’re not doing it in the hallway.” 

It’s a compelling point, so Eve eagerly follows her into the bedroom, both girls staggering as much as the other, bumping into walls and door frames and erupting with giggles every time, stopping to kiss each other against any solid surface in the hallway. They make their way into her bedroom, knocking over a lamp and a thermostat and sending batteries flying out of the TV remote in a combination of clumsiness and drunkenness and horniness. Kicking off her heels, Eve lays on the bed and watches as Oksana comes over to straddle her, connecting their lips and tongues. The taste of sweet alcohol dances over their tastebuds as their tongues get carried away, pressed together, exploring each other’s mouths. 

Eve wastes no time in lifting Oksana’s dress up so it’s out of the way, massaging her bare ass with both hands as the younger girl wiggles her hips impatiently, already breathing heavy from their kisses. 

“I like you in a dress.” Eve decides in between kisses, delivering a light slap to Oksana’s left cheek, smiling as she bucks her hips up at the feeling. 

“Oh yeah?” Oksana pants, moving her kisses down to Eve’s jawline and neck, left hand grabbing handfuls of her tits through the satin dress, wanting nothing more than to rip it off her. 

“Yeah,” she breathes out, feeling her stomach flutter as her girl returns to the love bite she left earlier, kissing and sucking on it after admiring the deep purple colour. “Easy access.”

They’re drunk and dressed up and horny and can’t stop shamelessly admiring one another, whispering compliments into each other’s hair and skin and mouth, drinking in every feeling. There’s a couple minutes of heavy petting before Oksana starts making her little agitated noises, wetness beginning to seep out of her in waves. 

“Are you gonna fuck me?” Oksana whines, desperate for Eve’s thigh caresses to escalate further or lift a little higher. “Remember we get to take turns. That was the deal.”

“You’re so impatient,” Eve tells her, administering another sharp slap to her ass. “You’ve wanted this since the party, huh? That’s why you were grinding on me like that. Couldn’t keep your hands off me.”

Oksana nods, looking up at Eve with big, innocent eyes, dark pupils and swollen lips, pressing kisses along Eve’s collarbone. “I wanted you to touch me but you didn’t.”

“You wanted me to touch you at the party?” Eve asks teasingly, Oksana nods. “In public?”

“Ever since we did it outside yesterday,” Oksana’s words are still slurring, making Eve sure that she would never admit this while sober. “It’s all I can think about. Want everyone to know who I belong to.”

Eve smiles down at her, lifting a hand from her thigh to stroke her hair. “Then why are we in your bed? Come on. Stand up.”

Oksana’s confused, but obliges anyway, feeling the blood rush to her core as she does. Eve is bent down in Oksana’s drawer, picking up the strap-on from earlier and ushering Oksana to follow her out onto the balcony. 

From here, they can see the whole expanse of the Olympic Village. They can hear the muffled EDM music and see flashing lights coming from the afterparty venue. Boats docked at Harumi wharf in the horizon sway peacefully with the current of the water, only shadows in the low light. Sunrise is just beginning, casting a slight orange hue over the base of the skyline, but not enough to brighten up the sky yet. It really does look beautiful up here, street lights illuminating the drunk passersby and transport golf carts down below. They’re fourteen floors high, so technically it’s not that public, no one will see them unless they specifically try to draw attention to themselves. It’s a good compromise. Oksana wants to do it in public and Eve wants to do it in private. Here’s a private area that feels exposed and public enough to pass as such. It’s perfect and the twinkle in Oksana’s eyes indicates that she feels the same. 

Eve lays on her back on the cool cement, contrasting against her burning skin and Oksana resumes her position on top of her, connecting their lips and grinding her hips down against Eve’s thigh. They mutter little “I love you”s to each other before Eve’s fingers hook around Oksana’s silk panties, pulling them down and throwing them inside somewhere. Oksana immediately connects her pussy with Eve’s thigh, gyrating against the hard, smooth muscle, relieving some tension that built up during their make out session. Eve encourages it for a couple minutes, holding her hands on Oksana’s ass and rocking her forward, enjoying the sweet little noises gently spilling out of her, feeling Oksana’s wetness transfer onto her thigh. Eve’s whispering encouraging words against Oksana’s lips, talking more than she usually would if she were sober. 

“Come up here.” Eve eventually tells her, motioning towards her face, and Oksana knows exactly what she means by that, quickly clambering up to position herself above Eve’s mouth. (“Will you tell me if I’m suffocating you?” “You won’t suffocate me. Just sit.”)

She slowly sinks herself down onto Eve’s waiting tongue, immediately letting out a long, drawn out moan, louder than her previous whimpers. She’s never sat on Eve’s face like this and she immediately wonders why she’s been depriving herself of it this whole time. Eve’s tongue has literally no where else to go, flicking relentlessly against Oksana’s clit as she threads her fingers tight into Eve’s hair, rocking her hips against Eve’s tongue in a relatively slow rhythm that’s driving her crazy. This position adds a whole new element of pressure, feeling Eve’s whole mouth as opposed to just her tongue and lips when she eats her out normally. Oksana’s whole body is trembling, trying to focus on staying upright. She looks down on the street below, watching athletes walking back to their buildings with the knowledge that if they looked up, they’d see her. They wouldn’t see exactly what was going on, but the noises she’s making would surely give it away. 

“Fuck, Eve,” she whines, groaning when she feels a tongue entering her hole, relying on her bouncing movements to thrust it in and out. “Feels so good.”

Gyrating her hips in a circle, she groans at the feeling of Eve’s tongue exploring her insides, able to get deep inside from this position, catching every drop of wetness on her tongue before it can leak out of her body. 

Eve taps at her outer thigh after around five minutes of getting her ready, silently asking her to lift up, which she does. “Take your dress off. Want you naked except the medals.”

“Demanding.” Oksana giggles, standing up clumsily and turning around so Eve can unzip her dress. She’s capable of doing it herself, its one of the benefits of being a flexible gymnast, but Eve is right there so why not. It should feel embarrassing, stripping naked on a balcony at almost 5AM, but Eve’s here and it’s exciting and new and risky and different. So it doesn’t. (The entirely altered state of reality and lack of connection to her own body from the binge drinking helps, too.)

She isn’t wearing a bra, so as soon as her nipples are exposed to the cool early morning Tokyo breeze, they’re hard and her body is covered in goosebumps from excitement and cold. Eve is expertly slipping on the harness, tightening the straps to fit her tiny little body. While they’re both petite, their proportions are way off from each other. Oksana has a tiny, toned waist and slim legs with thicker thighs and butt, strong muscle only visible in certain areas. Eve is muscle all over, small in stature and bulky in mass, her strength reflecting from head to toe. They wouldn’t change a thing about one another. Eve’s dress is still on, albeit raised up so its ruffled at her waist and Oksana lays down on the ground of the balcony in anticipation, feet flat on the ground and knees bent, admiring the gorgeous woman before her who she gets to call her own. 

Eve drops down to get on top of her, giggling as she does it so ungracefully. Their minds are so foggy from the alcohol that they probably won’t even remember this in the morning, but fuck it. Their lips connect again as Eve spreads Oksana’s thighs, positioning the toy so that its directly against her entrance, slipping in slowly when Oksana starts raising up impatiently. She just loves being filled up by fingers, toys, mouths and Eve wallows in seeing her blissed out facial expressions every time. Oksana was seriously made to take this. 

“Is this fine?” Eve asks dotingly, pecking her on the lips as she bottoms out. 

Oksana just rolls her eyes and nods, begging her to move. When Eve starts a slow roll of her hips, Oksana’s whining out again. “Go harder. You aren’t gonna break me. I can take it.”

Eve laughs at her desperation, shaking her head. “Why are you in a hurry? Let’s do it nicely.”

“Nicely is boring. We can do it slow in the morning when we’re crying and being all sentimental.”

“You’re so bratty.” Eve remarks with an eye roll, punctuating with a hard thrust that takes Oksana by surprise, causing her to gasp. “You’re lucky I love you and I can’t say no to you.”

Oksana preens when Eve starts a steady, medium-paced rhythm, pushing in hard and pulling out gently, wallowing in Oksana’s choked little whines. Her wetness is causing a slapping noise to echo around them, and Eve can’t help but wonder how far it’s actually travelling. It feels so dirty, knowing that someone could hear them or potentially even see them. She’s high on the feeling of fucking her girl properly, able to show off just how much lower body strength she has and if Oksana’s back arches are anything to go by, she’s doing a good job. 

“You look so pretty,” Eve coos, watching her girl below her. She’s all flustered, boobs bouncing with every thrust of Eve’s hips, gold medals hanging from her neck and sitting pretty on her ribcage. She has one of her hands up at her mouth, idly biting her fingers and the other hand is holding one of Eve’s. A particularly well-aimed thrust elicits a louder-than-usual moan from her, almost passing as a shout. Her extremities are trembling, pulse racing and mind completely foggy. Eve can physically see her eyes are more vacant than when they started, as if she completely goes to another place when they do this. “My pretty girl. No one else’s.”

When Eve attempts to move Oksana’s thighs a little to get a better angle, she’s shocked to discover that there is literally no limit to how far she can effortlessly push them back. All she planned was to push them back a little so that her legs could lift up and rest on Eve’s shoulders, but now her calves are stretched out, laying flat on the ground on either side of her head, allowing Eve the most perfect position to fuck into her. It looks weird and wrong at first, but she’s a gymnast and that’s her whole thing. She can bend into any seemingly-impossible shape and Eve vows to use that to her full advantage in future. (“Doesn’t it hurt when I bend your legs like that?” “No. Can’t everyone do this?” “No, weirdo.”)

Nonetheless, both girls appreciate the change of position immensely. Eve isn’t as uncomfortable anymore without Oksana’s thighs in her way and Oksana can finally get fucked at a pace she yearns for. It’s a win-win. When Eve’s confident enough in their position that she won’t snap Oksana in half, she leans forward, (putting even more pressure against Oksana’s unnaturally flexible thighs that makes Eve outwardly cringe) and connects their lips. Oksana’s mouth is permanently ajar now, too focused on the intense pleasure, so their kiss is mostly one sided. Eve appreciates it nonetheless. The blonde girl is getting so desperate, rubbing her hands over Eve’s hair and back and sides just to keep her close. She only gets the bare minimum clit stimulation from the top of Eve’s harness on entry and it’s not enough to get her close. It feels cruel to keep her hanging on like this, brain fogged up and eyes glassy with pleasure with no means of letting go. 

“Can you touch yourself for me?” Eve asks gently, placing a gentle peck to her cheek as she does, contrasting the unforgiving roughness of her hip movements. Oksana’s totally gone, looking up at her with blackened pupils and pouty lips, whining and huffing on every thrust. She nods hazily, lifting one of her hands from Eve’s back and trailing it down towards her own sensitive clit, tracing it gently in slow circles. “Good girl.” 

Oksana doesn’t even let on when she’s close, too far gone to even vocalise it. The hand on her clit speeds up all of a sudden and next thing Eve knows, her legs and thighs and the cement floor are soaked and dripping and Oksana’s back is arched. She’s panting and twitching and Eve keeps fucking her through it, in awe of what just happened. She squirted all over the two of them, for the second time. They both thought that maybe the time she squirted during their outdoor sex was a fluke, never happening again the few times they fucked afterwards, but apparently it’s something she’s very much capable of. Oksana herself doesn’t even realise she’s capable of it, looking down in shock when she comes down from her high. 

“Did I pee?” she pants out, sitting up with surprise and embarrassment. 

“No.” Eve giggles. “It’s not pee, relax.”

They lay there on the balcony, naked and relaxed for another half hour or so, watching the beginnings of the sunrise and talking about the afterparty and how much fun they had. It’s weird to lay together and not have some depressing chat. Normally, it’s a “what are we going to do without each other?” or a “what if I fail my finals?”. They talk about their plans for the future and it’s positive for once. They’re still tipsy, albeit sobered up a little from the cold air and post-coital sincerities, chatting about Eve meeting Oksana’s cat and Eve taking Oksana round the London Eye. There’s no set-in-stone plan for where they go from here, but it’s looking like a week or two in their respective home countries before one of them flies to either London or Moscow. Details don’t exactly matter yet, they just focus on the here and now. No matter what, they’ll make it work. 

“I’m gonna fuck you on a balcony in every continent of the world.” Eve declares sincerely, making Oksana giggle uncontrollably at her serious tone. 

“Promise?” Oksana laughs, holding out her pinkie finger for Eve to hook onto. 

“Promise.” Eve affirms, crossing their pinkies together. 

(Eve and Oksana find themselves on their respective plane rides home the next afternoon, hungover and lovesick, tracing their fingers along the beads of their matching I Heart Tokyo bracelets, hoping the other can psychokinetically feel it. All they have left of each other right now are pictures in camera rolls and memories in heads, grateful to have found something special in a normally hostile, lonely setting. They’re flying home with two gold medals each, but in their minds, it feels like three. Whatever plans the future may have for them remain foggy but as long as they have each other, they can’t want for more. They’ve got their medals and they’ve got their freedom and they’ve got each other.

Arigato, Tokyo.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy fuckin shit she’s done 
> 
> this fully started as a social experiment i have zero writing experience i just thought it could be fun to try!! last month i planned this super self-indulgent “10K word olympics oneshot” expecting to get like three readers and here we are 6 chaps later with tons of amazing readers!!
> 
> my next story is all planned out, it’s probably actually gonna be a long oneshot this time and it’s not gonna be as soft and sweet as this. it’s gonna be tough as hell. so look forward to that if u enjoy pain😃 
> 
> (i bought an expensive writing program so i literally HAVE to write now to get my money’s worth so yall are never gunna get rid of me. im sorry)
> 
> i have some ideas for a lil epilogue for this story so it’ll maybe come to fruition some day, but for now she’s done
> 
> thank u soooooooo much everyone who read this and left comments and were so so sweet to me i seriously can’t thank you enough!! you guys made me feel so welcome as a new writer and i can’t wait to write some more for u!! thank u thank u thank u
> 
> twitter: @astankovas_


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